Untitled
by thealmightyneko
Summary: Almost nothing went according to plan for Haruno Sakura. But as a graduating university student, she has to keep herself on the right track and this proves to be quite the challenge when her roommate and childhood best friend takes her out to a club where she met him and nothing was in her control anymore.
1. The Valkyrie

**Author's Note:** So I'm back with a quick drabble. It's a short DeiSaku story set in a College AU (which is none of the three choices I've put in my profile poll). I'm thinking of making this a long time fic since I've been reading a lot of SasuSaku Modern AUs because fanart has a funny way of making you jump back into a fandom. So anyway, there are so many good SasuSaku AUs that it was unfair to me as a Kaka/Dei/ItaxSaku fan.

 **Disclaimer/s:**

I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

The club in the story is actually a local club here in the Philippines. When I first went there, I told myself I was going to memorize everything about it and use it for this fic since I needed a basis on the setting.

I will use real-world references in the story (i.e. McDonald's, Camry, Smirnoff) though purely for story-telling. I own nothing.

I do not own the lyrics in the rest of the story.

* * *

 _Walking down town like a fallen urban angel_

 _Every street could be home, it's plain to see_

 _Mama said trust yourself long before you trust a stranger_

 _But she's a long way from home, her destiny_

* * *

Ino smoked her out of her bed, forced her into her boots and dragged her out of the apartment tonight. Sakura had already been fine in their dorm room, wrapped in her comforter to shield herself from the chill of their air-conditioning. Her earphones were in place with one of Faber Drive's older albums in shuffle. But Ino was persistent on taking her out on a Saturday night.

Two weeks—that's all they had left until their very last year as college students. Two weeks was all they had until the last and the bloodiest year in their pursuit for higher education. Frankly, a buttload of school work did not bother Haruno Sakura. If anything, she welcomed it. It kept her pre-occupied. But Ino was a different story.

Sakura and Ino were best friends since high school. When they both took their examinations at Ompahlos University, the two of them passed and agreed to talk their parents into allowing them to board inside the university.

While her roommate was living her own dream of studying Behavioral Science, Sakura was currently seeing to finish her degree in Mass Communication. While Nursing had been her first choice as a college degree, her mother's income would not be able to meet the tuition required in science and medical colleges. Media studies seemed to be a good second option at the time since her mother worked as a producer for her father's media firm.

Until their divorce three years ago.

Two weeks until her work load was filled with term papers, video submissions and the like. On the desktop of her netbook was the file of her thesis with Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke which remained untouched for several weeks. They wouldn't be able to put it off any longer now that their thesis adviser was back from his conference.

Meanwhile, Ino was stressing out on how she would be able to squeeze in her leisure time between academics and internship shifts. With this dilemma in mind, she was hell-bent on having a good time on her last few weeks and decided that Sakura should enjoy too.

There was a recently-opened club in the business district which was only a quick drive from Omphalos University. There were two things in that sentence that made Sakura a little skeptic to come with her best friend.

First of all, it was a drive away from O.U. which meant that they had to drive to and from. Alcohol was inevitable at those places, she knew, so it was either one of them had to sacrifice having a good time tonight or they were going to risk themselves by getting drunk tonight and drive back to the university both drunk. Of course, Sakura was willing to sacrifice because the other thing that bothered her was that they were going to a club.

Sakura wasn't new to drinking. In fact, she first started drinking on their first year in college when her parents separated. She'd seen every private bar placed around Omphalos University—both the permitted ones and the underground bars. But she'd never been to a club.

She never saw a point.

A fancy white neon sign flashed above them as they stepped out of the car in the parking lot. Lucky for them, one of the Audi cars parked at front left and gave way for Ino's black Camry.

Valkyrie, the sign read. Ino's heels clicked with every step while the chain on Sakura's boots rattled quietly as they walked to the entrance. There was a messy line all the way to the bouncers who were inspecting their bags and IDs.

Suddenly, Sakura felt conscious of her appearance. People around her wore short skirts, spaghetti-strapped tops and crop tops. There were those like Ino who flaunted their curves with body-hugging dressed that only covered so much of their thighs. Meanwhile, no effort had been put into putting together her outfit. She just pulled on the first white shirt and black pants she was able to reach in her closet. Her shirt was ripped "artistically" at the sleeves and her pants were made of some shiny material that Ino most probably knew the name of. With her black Chucks already nearly worn out, Sakura had no other choice but to wear her boots.

They didn't stand in line for more than a few minutes and they were able to enter.

The lights weren't as blinding as she originally thought they were going to be. The music was loud enough for the bass line to actually make her heart hump in her chest a little harder but not as deafening as expected as she was able to slip Ino a quick question about the place. But the bass line was nice.

"This is where you are all those nights you were gone?" asked the pinkie. She looked at her friend who was clad in a little indigo dress and 4-inch heels. Suddenly, Sakura felt smaller than usual. While the blonde was originally taller than her by a few inches, the high ceiling of the interior was overwhelming her.

Ino turned to her and shrugged. "Yeah but not always," she answered. "This just opened after all. And there's more than one club around the city but this is the closest one. Come on, I got a reserved table over there at the dance floor."

Before Sakura could even ask if she heard dance floor right, she was already being tugged in the middle of the crowd. They walked the steps downward and toward the middle of the club which was a wide translucent floor lit from underneath. The table her friend had been talking about was a tall table sans stools so Sakura assumed they were going to stand the whole night. Ino was already moving to the beat while Sakura took in the interior for a few minutes.

It was dark. The only lights were coming from the stage, both LED and spotlights wildly flashing and navigating around the club. The first floor was mainly a sunken dance floor with tables on the levelled platforms surrounding the area. Sakura looked to the second floor which looked almost like a balcony.

Men and women stood by the glass railings, enjoying their view of the whole dance floor. In the shadows, Sakura could see women approaching foreigners, whispering in their ears before proceeding to dance with them. It wasn't exclusive to the second floor. She'd already two women dry humping with two middle-aged dudes at the table not far from theirs.

Beside them was the bar where two guys juggled vodka bottles expertly, putting on a show for all the women who were expecting free drinks. Meanwhile, the men found it a disproportionate battle to win the bartenders' attention. They were up against cleavages.

An elbow was on her side, nudging her lightly and her attention went back to the blonde who she now realized belonged to this kind of scene. Her face was heavy with makeup she'd carefully but quickly put on an hour before. Her stature, her poise and her flirtatious vibe was created for this environment.

"Come on, Sakura," she whined bending slightly on her knees. "Have fun. Cut loose! You've been doing nothing next to studying for three years!"

"Hey, I hang out with you sometimes. And Naruto and Sasuke."

Her response got her an eye roll from her best friend and a light scoff. "The only times we've ever hung out this college is when I'm stuck at the dorm because I'm too broke to go out. And Naruto and Sasuke? I understand Sasuke. He's your ex-boyfriend and all. But it doesn't count anymore, sweetie. You only hang out a lot because you're working on your thesis."

"They're my classmates in most of my classes too! We have lunch together and we hang out sometimes."

"We've had this conversation already," said the blonde. "It didn't change my mind about dragging you here. Ain't gonna change my mind about making you stay."

Sakura's shoulders slumped. "Fine. Whatever. But if I don't have fun tonight, I get to drive for the rest of the year."

"Can't promise I'll let you do that but you sure are driving tonight because I plan on getting wasted," laughed Ino. The oohs and ahs of the women standing by the bar beside caught her attention. "Oh, free drinks! I'll get us some. Stay here."

Her heels clicked on the floor as she walked away, leaving Sakura to stand in the middle of the dance floor by herself. Once or twice, someone bumped into her because they were too busy dancing but Sakura didn't mind. Being a buzz kill at a place full of drunk people with fragile glasses and beer bottles felt like a bad idea.

She tried to get her head into the music. Her Twitter bio included music lover somewhere so she might as well own up to it. Can't say she was a music lover if she didn't try to appreciate the kind that had strangers feeling each other up in the dark. So she tried. The bass line was nice. It was enough to get her foot tapping to the beat.

It was a start.

Ino returned to the table not long after she left and smirked at Sakura, teasing her about enjoying after all but she countered that she paid for her entrance and she was only making the most of a part of her savings.

For the most part, Ino screamed to every drop of the beat and flirted casually with the guys (and girls) who approached her before politely turning them down. Being herself, Ino was always one to entertain admirers but not long enough for them to believe she was giving them a chance.

Sakura had her share of flirtatious men but compared to Ino's admirers who were enchanted by her God-given good looks and well-shaped bodice, the men who approached her were more intrigued with her pink hair than captivated by her beauty. Although one guy actually noticed her green eyes in the middle of the darkness and wild lights. She was so tempted to give her number if it had not been for the fact that he was well in his mid-30s and she was only 21.

The DJ signed off for the night and was replaced by another man named Killer B whose mixes were not as good as the first guy but Sakura paid good money for this so she had to enjoy it. At least the vodka made it a little easier to appreciate the music.

"Shit shit shit," she heard Ino say in the middle of a bad We Found Love remix. "It's him!"

"What is it?" Sakura turned around, looking for the best-looking guy she could find.

Ino hid behind her best friend and pointed to a pale-looking guy in the middle of the crowd. "It's DJ Sketch. The guy from earlier. Hold on, let me see if I can get his number."

She didn't have a chance to bid Ino good luck before she turned her heel and squeezed through the crowd. There was no stopping her. Ino's determination was unwavering when it came to cute guys and no matter how eager that DJ Sketch was to get away from the crowd, her best friend was going to get a phone number out of him.

In the back of her mind, Sakura rolled her eyes and chuckled. She didn't mind at all that her best friend left every now and then for free drinks and cute boys but if this is what it was like to accompany her at these parties, she would very much rather stay at the dorm.

The lights flickered on and off while red and blue lasers spun around the club in every direction. Following the cliché mix of We Found Love, DJ Killer B played a pretty decent version of a song called A Town Called Paradise.

Of course, she didn't know much about these kinds of songs. While she had a playlist for rock and alternative, which was her own preference, she also listened to pop songs brought upon by Naruto's consistent radio-blasting in their dorm room during thesis nights. She also had saved two or three indie band albums on Spotify influenced by Ino's music preference.

She finished her first glass of lemonade-tequila-gin mix. To mark their table reserved, she left her jacket and almost empty purse on top of the table and went to the open bar where she squeezed herself through what she thought was a thousand pairs of boobs and ogling eyes.

One of the bartenders regarded her with a smirk before beginning to twirl the bottles in the air. The beauty of being her was that she didn't have to put out to get attention. She didn't have anything to put out, anyway. However, pink hair seemed to work just as well as exposed cleavages and she got her drink in no time.

When she stalked back to her table, there was a tall, burly man leaning against it. In the dim of the club, it was difficult to make out what he really looked like but when she got closer, she found that he was actually somewhere in his 30s. Or maybe around that age.

He sported a black coat with a small red cloud logo on one side over a white designed shirt and jeans that didn't look too tight on his legs. His hair was kept clean but there was wax in there to make it stand a little. The shape of his head looked as if it didn't agree with flat hair. And she wasn't sure if it was the lights or anything but he looked so pale, he appeared to be… Blue?

She took a sip of her new drink which turned out to be rum cola and approached the table with much caution. Ino always kept a tiny Swiss army knife inside her makeup kit in case men showed any ill-intention but the blonde was nowhere to be found.

"Excuse me," she said, her voice struggling to be louder than the thump of the bass. The man was far taller than she originally thought. He was about two or three feet taller than her and thrice as wide. She gulped before continuing, "We kinda booked this table."

The man mouthed What? at her with a crooked expression before he leaned and offered his ear. Sakura repeated what she had just said in the same volume and closer to his ear.

After understanding what she said, he gestured for her to listen then and said to her, "I know. I just wanted to ask somethin'."

Sakura looked at him, puzzled before offering her ear once again.

"I was wondering if you were a lesbian," he shouted in her ear a little too loudly as the song shifted to something a little calmer.

Sakura gave him a hearty laugh and gave him a thumbs down. He gave her a toothy (and was that a fang?) grin before he gestured for her to lean in again.

"So the girl is your friend?"

Sakura nodded.

"Are you a student?"

This question made Sakura stop and wonder about the man a little. She wasn't usually one to judge but it just crossed her mind to be extra cautious of this man who was twice her size and could easily carry her like a sack of rice on his shoulder. She clutched her drink to herself. He'd been leaning into her all night and she forgot to pay attention to her drink.

What if he'd drugged it without her looking?

There was no telling. It was her first time at a place like this and already, she was faced with something like this.

"I'm not really sure I should answer that," she told him.

The tall man chuckled and shook his head before he leaned in to her. "You're not my type, kid. I was just told to come ask you by some kid who forgot to grow a pair. I'm Kisame, by the way."

He reached out a huge hand to her and she shook it. "Sakura."

"Sakura," he repeated. His grip on her hand did not loosen. Instead, he pulled her slightly and pointed to the second floor on the same side as Sakura's table. "See that guy over there?" Her gaze followed his finger and landed on the man leaning on the railings who had just turned away from them as if he had been caught staring. "Yeah, that's the pair-less guy who asked me to come down here."

She squinted her eye and the spotlight passed him by for a quick second. He had long blonde hair tied half-up while the rest of his locks draped over his chest. She didn't exactly get a good look at his face since he turned away too quickly.

"I can't really see him from here," Sakura laughed.

The guy called Kisame let her go. "Yeah, well, the kid's not exactly drunk enough to come down here himself and ask for your name and number."

"Well, you can tell him to come down when he's drunk enough and we'll see if I'm drunk enough to give him my number," said Sakura.

"Alright, princess," he chuckled, which puzzled Sakura because she couldn't exactly find anything funny in what she'd just told him. Perhaps he was remembering some personal joke? "Nice meeting you, Sakura. Give him your number and we'll be seeing each other a lot. Ciao."

"Bye."

She watched as Kisame left the dance floor and headed for the stairs. Sakura was just about to look up at the man Kisame had been referring to when someone tapped her shoulder.

"Damn," Ino said in her ear. "That Sketch's slippery af."

"Af?" Sakura laughed at her best friend. "What the hell's an af?"

"As fuck," came her reply.

Sakura raised a brow. Ino and her internet slangs. Of course, there would be no use in asking whether or not Ino was able to get the DJ's number. She wouldn't be here if she did. Or maybe she would but she would most likely be a squealing mess, overexcited to go home and text the guy.

They drank more into the night, making the most of the open bar before it closed at 1am. Ino was already a little tipsy while Sakura held her alcohol a little better. After all, she hadn't been jumping to every song played by the DJ.

Part of it had to do with the fact that Killer B wasn't the best DJ on that stage but thankfully he was about to sign off as he declared some dubstep song as his last song for the night. The other reason she refused to participate in the crowd's bouncing was the fact that she was being watched for the last few hours.

She looked up once a few hours ago and found the blonde guy looking down at her. Their eyes met for a few seconds before his attention turned to something behind him. A few minutes after that, she looked up once more and found Kisame standing beside him by the railings, checking out some other part of the club while his friend concentrated on his drink.

She was tempted to look up again.

And she did.

But he wasn't there anymore. Kisame was gone as well.

Somewhere, inside, she might have felt a little disappointed. Looking back, if she counted all the men that approached her tonight, she would count eleven. Ino was already wasted for half an hour but it was Sakura's call whether they were leaving or not. She was driving. The only reason she stuck around a little while longer was to complete the whole dozen.

Seeing as the man had already gone home, Sakura looked at Ino one last time before grabbing the blonde's purse and slinging her best friend's limp arm around her shoulder to carry her out of the place.

She didn't get far from their table when she bumped into someone and almost lost her balance. Thankfully, whoever bumped into her had the sober mind to grab her arm and keep her from falling.

"You look like you need some help, yeah."

Sakura wanted to protest but it was true. She needed help.

When she met his eyes, she had to smile a little (although inwardly). It was him. The kid Kisame had been talking about.

He was young. Far younger than Kisame was. He looked her age if not a little older. His hair was worn in a half-up pony while parts of his hair fell over his eye. Blue. His eyes were beautifully blue and even in the dark, she felt mesmerized by the color.

And he slung Ino's other arm on his shoulder.

"You're leaving already, hm?" Asked the guy as he hauled Ino's almost unconscious body through the walkway.

Sakura did the best she could to shrug. "Yeah. I mean, look at her. My partner for the night's down and we got no chair to put her on."

"We've got a couch reserved," he said a little too quickly. "I mean if you still wanna stay. And I could be your partner for the rest of the night, yeah."

It wasn't a bad offer. The temptation was strong seeing as how handsome the guy was. And he didn't seem so bad. He was young. What could he do? Plus, now that Ino was here, her Swiss army knife was one pull away.

But no. She wasn't going to take it. There was no reason to. She was alone too now that Ino was out cold.

"It's been a long night," she answered politely. She readjusted the angle of Ino's arm on her shoulder. "I'd love to take you up on the offer and I'm sure my friend would too but I'm already drunk enough as it is and I have to drive her back home."

They left the club and rested on the steps outside for a while. There was some sort of ringing in her ears and everything she heard sounded muffled. She'd recovered from her drunken state a little and was now just a little tipsy compared to her dead friend.

Sakura sat on the steps with Ino's whole weight rested on Sakura's shoulder while the guy stood beside them.

He was wearing a black coat, similar to the one as Kisame's minus the red cloud, over a violet shirt and jeans. He was looking at his phone with furrowed brows before he rolled his eyes and put his phone away in his back pocket.

His eyes met hers and he smirked easily.

"Sakura, right?"

She smiled at him and nodded. The huge guy must have told him her name, she figured.

"I guess your hair's natural if your parents had to name you Sakura," he said. "Deidara, by the way."

There was something smooth in the way he spoke. Confident. Yes, that was the word. It was as if he'd trusted his mouth enough to do the work for him. This wasn't his first time hitting on a girl. Which made her wonder why Kisame told her that this guy forgot to grow a pair. Was it the alcohol speaking to her right now?

Sakura took it upon herself to remove Ino's heels to make it easier for her to drag around.

She cleared her throat. "What time is it?"

"A little after 2."

"We should go," said the pinky.

Deidara moved swiftly in front of the two girls and supported the blonde's wait to help Sakura get up. The two of them proceeded to carry Ino off of the steps.

"I'll help you to your car, yeah. Where'd you park it?"

"By the entrance."

Which was on the other side of the block. But whether the man minded, he did not say.

Once they reached the black Camry, Sakura rummaged in Ino's purse, looking for her keys which were hidden in the makeup kit. She gave it a quick press and the car beeped.

Deidara slipped Ino into the passenger seat whereas Sakura took the driver's seat, tossed the handbag and heels in the backseat and helped him from the inside. When Ino was fastened cozy, he shut the door and moved to Sakura's side. From the pinkie's view, he was behind the open door.

"Are you sure you can drive?"

Sakura waved her hand dismissively. "I got this. We aren't far from here."

"When do you suppose you're coming back, hm?" He leaned on the door lightly with a smirk playing on his features.

She shrugged in response. In all honesty, she wasn't sure she wanted to come back if it meant carrying Ino out of the club again. Was this how it always was? If yes, then who carried her home all those nights she did end up in the dorm?

But then there was this guy. Sakura was careful naturally. She calculated all possible outcomes of her decisions. And this man was a stranger, a dangerous variable to add in her equations.

There was this voice in her head telling her to give him her number but there were several ways of tracking someone down and stalking them. She wasn't having that. Not until she got to know this guy.

And she wanted to get to know him. Something about him felt like a breath of fresh air. Perhaps it was because this was her first time meeting someone in a club and there was something thrilling about flirting with a stranger. Maybe that's why Ino loved these places so much.

"Depends," she answered. She started the engine and readjusted thermostat on the air-conditioning. "I'm not sure when my friend's coming back here."

Deidara shrugged. "Whatever. I'm always here anyway, yeah."

"Why?"

"I sorta work here."

"Oh." That explained the coat, she thought. "Well then, I guess I'll see you when I do?"

"Sure. Goodnight, Sakura."

"Goodnight, Deidara. And thanks for helping me out with my friend."

With that, she pulled the door closed backed out of the parking space. Deidara remained where he was and gave Sakura a casual salute and a saucy wink. She grinned and waved goodbye before driving away in the general direction of the university.

Sometime in the middle of the short drive from the business district back to OU, Ino stirred and insisted on driving. Of course, Sakura wouldn't allow it for obvious reasons but that didn't stop Ino from shifting in her seat and trying to kick Sakura off the driver's seat.

God, she swore if she didn't have something to look forward to the next time Ino dragged her ass back to Valkyrie, this was going to be the last time she was ever going to let her pull her out of the dorm.

And yes, now that she thought about it, there was a possibility she'd accept if ever Ino invited her to that place. But it wasn't just about Deidara.

For the first time since she and Sasuke had broken up, Sakura left the comfort of the university and met new people. And she'd been hit on several times too. It was a good ego-boost and that was what she needed now the most. Of course, Naruto's occasional advances were flattering but he hadn't shown any since he entered a relationship with the Hyuuga girl down the hall one year ago.

Another kick from Ino brought her back to reality.

They were in front of the university. The guard, familiar with the black car, approached the window on Sakura's side and knocked. The tinted glass rolled down and revealed Sakura's pink-crowned head.

"Hey, Kotetsu-san," Sakura greeted sheepishly.

The guard looked surprised to find that the driver was not the blonde but he smiled at her anyway.

"Good morning, ma'am," answered Kotetsu. "You're Ms. Yamanaka's roommate, right?"

"Yup. Sorry for coming back so late."

He was just about to respond when Ino crawled in on Sakura's lap and greeted the guard with a cheerful slur.

"K'tetsu!" Ino waved her hand frantically and grinned at him. "Don't mind this fore'ead right 'ere. She cool. Lerv you! Mwa!" The blonde then proceeded to tap Sakura on the lap with some force. "C'mon, you. Step on it 'cuz I have to go peepee."

The guard chuckled at Ino and opened the gates. "Thanks for looking after Yamanaka."

"And thanks for tolerating her coming home late."

She parked in their reserved parking space in front of the dormitories and shut the engine off. Her seatbelt was out and she dialed Naruto for help and thankfully, he was still awake and answered immediately. She would have called Sasuke too but she remembered he hadn't moved back in the dorm just yet.

Uzumaki stepped out of the dorm in his an orange tank top which was a little loose around the arms and black jersey shorts. His hair was unkempt and Sakura guessed he was either on YouTube or at Hinata's room.

Since Hinata's cousin just graduated, she finally had the dorm room to herself and no one was keeping tabs on her anymore.

Sakura and Naruto pulled Ino out of the passenger seat and did their best not to drag her all the way up to the fourth floor. When Naruto finally realized what a drag Ino was literally being, he took her arm from Sakura's shoulder and simply carried her bridal style in the elevator.

As soon as they arrived on the fourth floor, Ino jumped out of Naruto's arms and ran for the communal bathroom. Luckily, Sakura had the sense to follow her or else Ino would have fallen asleep in the cubicle.

After tucking her in the dorm room, Sakura thanked Naruto and offered him to stay for a while. He declined her with some hesitance and was off to Hinata's room once more where he said the raven was preparing him a cup of instant ramen.

She, on the other hand, took a quick shower, changed into a home shirt and pajama shorts before crawling under her sheets with her laptop. The first thing she did was go on Spotify, search Zedd, Alesso and all related artists, listened to the first few minutes of every song and saved all those she liked in one playlist.

Guilty Pleasure, she named the playlist.

She didn't really know why these songs were even considered music. That was before tonight. After stepping into a club and immersing herself in the setting the best she could, she realized one thing—the bass line was nice.

* * *

 **Final notes:**

I will be back to update this story.

To Under The Heir readers, I'm sorry for the delay. Updates are on the way. Swear.

I promise to do more oneshots too.


	2. Tricky Situations

**I'm back with another chapter of this and not another chapter of Under the Heir. Well, I'm sorry but it's getting harder to write something that's almost ending.**

 **Enjoy this in the meanwhile!**

* * *

 _Catch your eye in the night, it's glowing_  
 _I'm so high and there's no controlling_  
 _In the light of the moon you're all I see_

* * *

Two weeks later, she was back inside the dorm room, fresh out of the shower. Her pink hair was tightly wrapped in a towel as her torso was while an Avril Lavigne song blasted as loud as it could from the speakers of her laptop. Her outfit for the night was strewn messily on her bed.

She, Naruto and Sasuke were meeting with Hatake Kakashi for quick advising before they went out to one of the college bars around Omphalos University. Of course, they scheduled their meeting two hours before the bar opened because while Kakashi said almost nothing about their dissertation, he also never arrived on time.

The three leaned during the first few weeks of writing their thesis together that their adviser was ab impossible man. For being late, he always had some lame excuse ready like _"I had to shave"_ and _"My eye doctor took too long with the check-up"_ and _"I got lost on the path of life."_

His schedule was also irregular because he was part of a dissertation team whose journals were known across the country so he went to both local and international conferences and seminars on a regular basis.

Tonight, they managed to pin him down for a quick recap and update of everything they accomplished so far.

Her marimba ringtone ruined her punk princess vibe and she reached over her laptop to put the song on pause and answer her phone.

"What is it, Naruto?"

There was a quiet rock song playing in the background as Naruto replied, "You ready yet? Sasuke and I are on our way to the parking lote."

"I can hear your stereo, moron. You're still in your room. I'll be out in five, ten minutes tops."

"You better."

With a groan and a quick eye roll that Naruto would never know about, she ended the call and tossed her phone on the bed.

Her bar outfit was nothing special. The Viper was just across the campus aferall. It was a small place on the second floor of what seemed to be a quaint denim shorts and her chucks.

Who was she trying to impress, anyway?

A ding broke the silence as she slipped into her clothes.

 _ **Perfect Blonde Bitch sent a photo.**_

Another ding.

 _ **Perfect Blonde Bitch: wish u were here, roomie!**_

Sakura wasn't surprised to find herself looking at a poorly taken photo of Ino in the club when she unlocked her phone. At least, that's what she hoped it was because she was pretty sure that the picture was 80% darkness and the rest were just colors which Sakura put together as Ino's heavily painted face behind a peace sign.

Her roommate invited her to go out with her again tonight with some of her other friends from Behavioral Science. Sakura would have gladly accepted the invitation if not for the fact that today was the only day Hatake Kakashi was free.

After putting everything she would need tonight in her pockets, she grabbed her draft of their thesis and was out of the dorm room in no time.

When she reached the parking lot, both Naruto and Sasuke were already waiting for her by the black Mustang which happened to be the Uchiha's car. As expected, the darker man wore a slightly irritated look on his face.

Aside from that, he was also wearing a black band shirt with grey pants while Uzumaki was in a red hoodie and black cargo shorts.

Sasuke was never a patient man. And neither was she.

"Sorry," she said almost automatically. If her ex-boyfriend was looking as pissed as he was, she didn't have to check her watch to realize it took her more than ten minutes to get dressed and get down here.

The Uchiha simply turned away from her and entered the car. Naruto, on the other hand, slung his arm around her and pulled her in for a quick hug.

"Don't mind him," he apologized. "I think he's just tired cuz he just moved in this morning and all."

Sakura pulled away. "I know. You asked me for a pair of scissors this morning. Anyway, haven't seen you all week. Where have you been?"

The two of them moved routinely. Naruto pulled open the door to the passenger seat while Sakura got in the back seat. There was a time when the two of them switched assigned seats and it had been awkward when they returned to their original vehicle arrangement.

"Hinata and I went out a couple times this week," he said, fastening his seat belt. As Sasuke started the car, the blond's hand reached automatically for the radio only to have his hand shoved away by Sasuke.

As he readjusted his mirrors, the raven spoke. "I'm not letting you play that Ariana or Kanye West shit on me, Uzumaki."

Naruto shot him an offended look before turning back to Sakura. "Anyway, I was also working part-time at Ichiraku's to—oh, I didn't tell you that? Well, yeah. I wanted to take HInata out on that fancy new restaurant in the business district."

"Nice," came her reply. Through the rear view mirror, she caught Sasuke looking at her before he tore his eyes away a second too late. "So how was Konoha?"

"Same as ever," their driver answered simply, either too busy maneuvering the car or too pissed to give her a decent answer. The car smoothly pulled out of the parking space and soon, they were circling the university to find the right exit.

The Viper was only directly across campus but every once in a while, the bar offered discounts to car owners with specific numbers in their plates. Most of the time, the numbers coincided with Sasuke's and they weren't exactly sure why that was.

Sakura wagered that it was because the owner was gay and fancied the Uchiha.

The clock displayed with the radio flashed. 7:43 p.m. They agreed to tell Kakashi to meet them at 6:00 p.m. and show up at eight in the evening since that was most likely when Hatake would show up.

When they arrived at The Viper, Sakura wasn't so shocked to realize why the raven was so pissed. It took her longer to prepare and meet them than the drive itself from the campus to the bar. But of course, she wasn't going to apologize for being a minute late.

Kakashi was already sitting at a table in the bakery downstairs when they arrived. Even with the bottom half of his face hidden behind his iconic orange book—which Sakura discovered to be porn novels from her frequent bookshop trips—it didn't take a genius to guess he was still wearing his surgical mask. He always did and rumors about him carrying a highly contagious sexual disease weren't exactly new in the university anymore.

They sat down before him and presented their thesis on Sasuke's laptop with Sakura supplying the details while Naruto munched on the small tray of garlic bread that Kakashi ordered for them.

"Kindly revise you RRL and create a more descriptive simulacrum," he said, scrolling over the PDF file of their research. His only visible eye—since the other was concealed behind his fallen silver bangs—scanned through the words a little too quickly that Sakura thought he was too lazy to actually read it.

Naruto nodded every now and then, pretending to understand though his role was merely to conduct the surveys and compile answers while Sakura and Sasuke did most of the writing.

Kakashi turned the laptop back to Sasuke and slung his satchel over his shoulder. "Send the revised copy within the month and if it's all okay, I'll give you the go signal on the survey, alright? Goodnight, kids."

It was always that easy for the man to just give them a quick criticism and leave them to figure it out on their own. Just like that, the silver-haired man was out the door and in his car. The three of them left the bakery the way they came in and turned to the alleyway right next to it where they walked to the other side of the block.

Tucked between the two buildings was an emergency exit that as reconstructed for easier and safer use. After all, this was the only way inside and outside The Viper and they didn't want their drunk students in an accident. Lawsuits were not something Orochimaru was fond of especially with an underground business such as this.

The place was small and cozy given that it wasn't a full house. It was a hodgepodge of Western and Rustic-styled interior pieaces. The chairs never matched each other nor did the photos and decorations hung around. It was dimly lit save for the bar in the middle of the establishment which had better lighting than most of the area.

As sual, the barkeeper and resident bartender greeted them and directed them to a vacant table. Kabuto was his name as far as Sakura remembered. The area wasn't spacious. It was more intimate than most bars around the university, usually able to seat less than a dozen groups.

"Uchiha-san," greeted the white-haired man. He pushed his glasses as he turned to Sakura and Naruto whom he greeted with less vigor. "Haruno-san. Uzumaki-san."

Warily, Sasuke looked around before asking in a hushed voice. "Is the owner here?"

"No," answered the bartender. "Away on corporate matters. What can I get you three? By the way, we have a discount on plate numbers with anything _July_ about them."

Which meant that if the car had any of the letters in July on its plate number or the number seven, indicating the month in its chronological assignment in the calendar, the bar offered a discount.

Lucky for us, Sasuke's plate UCH 372.

Uchiha shook his head. "You know my plate well enough. Get us the usual."

0-0-0-0-0-0

 _ **Perfect Blonde Bitch: motherfckers lef me**_

 _ **Perfect Blonde Bitch: left**_

 _ **Perfect Blonde Bitch: help me bitch im alone**_

Naruto was already tipsy but was still quite right with his words while talking about Hinata when Ino sent Sakura the message. Her other companion, on the other hand, was busy scrolling through his Facebook feed. Some get together. No wonder Ino told her to get a life.

Her drinking friends were shit.

"Hey, Naruto, can I borrow your phone? I need to make a call." She wasn't even aware that he had been in the middle of a story about how he and Hinata stayed in the dorm room some days ago and he told this story before.

The loudmouth didn't seem to mind as he whipped out his phone from the pocket of his hoodie. Sakura dialed Ino's number at once. It rang a few times before she picked up and the party music almost deafened her.

"Ino?" Her feet led her to the ladies' room. A full-body mirror was in place just by the entrance and that was where she planted herself.

The other line was loud and her best friend had to shout to get the message across. "Bitch, get down here!"

"And where exactly are you? And stop calling me a bitch."

"Fine. I'm at Valkyrie, you slut. I need friends."

Okay, that wasn't any better.

Sakura was not Valkyrie ready. She was in cheap shorts and Chucks, for goodness' sake. And she only had a few bucks with her. The most Sakura could do was pick Ino up and it was doubtful whether the blonde wanted to go home if she got there at 11 p.m.

Before Sakura could even decide on it, she heard Ino scream into the phone, "I'll be waiting for you here! Hey, cute bartender! Another—"

She hung up.

In the meantime, Sakura weighed her options. If she stayed here, she'd be stuck to another night with her ex-boyfriend who found her (or anyone at all) annoying and her best guy friend who could go on all night about his girl.

Hinata was great as she was, really. She just wished Naruto found something else to talk about.

On the other hand, if she followed Ino to Valkyrie, she would look out of place, first and foremost, and she didn't have the money on her which mean she would have to just wait for Ino outside. Without alcohol.

So it was sober boredom or intimate get-together with her jerk of an ex-boyfriend.

When she returned to their table, Sasuke was already opening another bottle of beer—a bottle that was supposedly from her reserved pile. Normally, she would engage in a tug-of-war of the bottle but tonight she was leaving early.

She had the rest of the year to get wasted with these guys.

"Gotta go, sweetie," she said, not minding that she had interrupted yet another tale of the beautiful raven across the hall but she made up for it with a light peck on the blond's cheek.

For the first time tonight, Sasuke looked up from his phone to turn to her with an eyebrow raised. "Where are you off to?"

"Just somewhere," answered the pinkette cheekily before finishing her bottle in one full swig. "See you 'round."

She left the establishment and ran out of the alleyway only to discover that it was raining cats and dogs. Luckily, she hailed a cab in less than a minute. She made sure to message Naruto the plate of the cab just in case anything happened but nevertheless, she arrived at her destination in less than half an hour.

On the way to the club, she had been trying to reach her best friend but to no avail. The number kept ringing but Ino didn't answer and even as she stood outside the busy club, she was at a loss.

What was she to do? Ino was waiting for her inside but there was no way she was entering the club—not looking like this and especially not without money. Sakura was beginning to regret ditching her boys.

What made it worse was that she was feeling the effects of the beer from earlier slowly ebbing away. Oh god, she was sobering up.

The thought of sneaking inside came to mind but she didn't want to risk it—not with bouncers as big as the men who were standing by the doorway. How the hell was she going to get in if Ino wasn't answering her phone?

"Kid?"

Sakura was reluctant to turn to whoever had said it but the voice was familiar and she couldn't help but assume that the man had been referring to her. Still, whats-his-voice could have been calling anyone so she focused on her phone, trying to reach Ino.

"Hey, pinkie."

Okay, this time for sure, the man was calling her. Beside the fact that she was the only person who could be referred to as _pinkie_ within the area, a huge hand landed on her should and it was a good thing she thought twice before she followed her instinct to pull the hand and throw the man over her shoulder.

Turning around, Sakura was greeted with a toothy grin and the smell of cigarettes.

Her lips twitched into a wary smile. "Hey."

"It's Kisame," he said. "Remember me? From last last week? We met in—"

"Yeah, I remember you," she laughed. How could she forget, for crying out loud? He was gigantic and so pale… And he had mistaken her for a lesbian.

She watched as he huffed the last of his stick before he threw it to the floor and stepped on it with his shined leather shoes. His outfit was just the same as the last time—a designed shirt under what looked like his uniform jacket with the red cloud but tonight, he was wearing jeans.

Kisame was just about to ask what the hell she was doing out here, slightly soaking from the rain when her phone rang.

Excusing herself, Sakura took the call immediately as it was Ino's face flashing on her screen.

"Bitch!" Her ear rang a little at the blonde's voice. "Where the hell are you?! I'm so lonely and—well, actually not. I'm with DJ Sketch and I was just wondering where the hell you were 'cuz—"

She suppressed a growl in her throat. "I'm outside, Ino, but I can't get in. I don't have money to get in!"

"Sneak in!"

"I already thought of—"

"See you soon!"

Had Sakura sobered up a little more, she would be pissed as hell. Okay, now what? She spent a good amount of money on her cab ride just to get here and if she _did_ get in there, she'd be playing third wheel to Ino and DJ Sketch.

This time, she rewarded herself with a low growl and an eye roll that Kisame didn't miss.

"Problem?"

Sakura could only laugh ironically. "No, no. It's fine. I'm only stuck out here while my best friend hooks up with one of the DJs. Worst part is _I don't have any alocohol_!"

The huge man blinked once. And then twice. And then he broke into sounds which Sakura recognized as his chuckling. "You know, I can get you in, right?"

"I am _not_ sneaking inside—"

A hand went to her damp pink locks and she felt him lightly ruffling her hair. "Kid, no one ever said I was gonna sneak you in. I said I was gonna _get_ you in. I have strings I can pull in this place. As long as you got your I.D. Quite lucky I ran into you, I guess."

Oh. Well, that _was_ lucky. Had Kisame not been outside at the time, she would most probably have walked back to the university.

Kisame made sure to let Sakura walk in front of him. He advised her to act like she owned the place and not like she was trying to smuggle in cocaine. However he knew what the two looked like, she didn't feel like asking.

As expected, the bouncer held his arm to stop her and her mind was racing but she kept her cool. Well, at least outwardly.

"Hey, it's cool, Toshio. She's with me," the man behind her said, cutting off whatever it was the bouncer was about to say.

The bouncer eyed her then Kisame then looked back at her. "Alright. Still need an I.D."

Sakura fidgeted for her wallet and pulled out her I.D. The bouncer inspected her I.D. with his flashlight, turning the card over and under a few times until he handed it back to her and he permitted Sakura and Kisame to enter.

The familiar thump of the music reverberated harder the closer they got to the main venue and by the time they reached the middle of the club, the smell of smoke once again penetrated her senses.

Well, no wonder it did. When she turned to her companion to ask where she could find the pale DJ, he had already lit himself a cigarette.

Oblivious, Kisame took a few puffs before blowing smoke slowly through his lips. The sound of a clearing throat brought his attention back to the pinkette beside him and he caught the cigarette between his two fingers.

"Yes?"

"You know where to find DJ Sketch?"

It took a few seconds for him to remember the DJ's real name. "Oh, Sai. Yeah, last time I saw him, he was somewhere… There."

With her eyes, Sakura followed the direction Kisame pointed with his finger. To her luck, she did find a very familiar shade of platinum blonde in the back of the bar. It also helped that the lights somehow reached to the back of the club because it reflected on the silver plate-like patches on her shoulder and chest.

Ino was sharing a couch with DJ Sketch—or Sai as Kisame called him—with several bottles on their table, some knocked over… Like she was about to be.

"Found her," Sakura sighed. "Thanks, Kisame-san. See you around!"

Her hand went to his shoulder and she gave it two good pats. When he chuckled, she felt his voice reverb through his body—or was that the music? Either way, she already began walking away.

Navigating through the crowd was so much harder when sober. At least when you were drunk, you didn't mind the sweaty bodies pressing up against your back or your legs and the looks men gave you were far less disturbing.

But right now, she just couldn't wait to get to their couch were not a lot people were grinding up against each other… Well, except for Ino and Sai. Yes, they were seated next to each other but upon closer inspection, Sakura could see in their eyes that they were dying to do just so.

Sakura reached their couch and circled the crowd to get to Ino. She lightly tapped her roommate's shoulder and the blonde almost spilled her drink in surprise.

"Hey, slut," Ino greeted, her voice automatically louder than usual because of the loud music. Sakura frowned inwardly. "Glad you could join the party. This is DJ Sketch."

The raven raised a hand to acknowledge her and slipped a wink when Ino wasn't looking anymore. Ugh. She felt so sorry for Ino right now because heaven knew how many other girls Sai had silently hit on tonight while Ino chatted his ear off.

"Let's go home," Sakura said firmly.

Ino shook her head. "Hey, enjoy for a little while, will ya? This place is pricey to get into."

"I slipped by the guards. I don't have any money so can we please go home now?"

The blonde gasped rather exaggeratedly before pulled on an uncaring expression in two seconds. She pulled out her wallet and slipped out her credit card and handed it to Sakura.

"Here's my credit card," Ino slurred. "Go nuts. Just give me a few more moments with DJ Sketch over here."

Sakura was at a crossroad. She looked at the card in her hands then back at Ino whose attention was now completely off of her and back to Sai. On one hand, she really wanted to go home and lie down for a while. Maybe bother Naruto and Sasuke just for the sake of annoying Sasuke.

On the other hand, Ino never lent her any money. Not ever. Maybe Ino did treat her to drinks but Ino never actually loaned her money for stuff she actually needed. But Sakura did spend good money on her cab ride to get to the club and save her best friend. She could just charge her best friend for Superhero Service.

She checked her phone for the time. 11:24.

Two hours. Two hours would do.

If she didn't give Ino the time she wanted, she would probably throw a fit in the car—one way worse than the fit she had when Sakura didn't let her drive two weeks ago. And Sakura didn't want to be kicked out of the car for real this time.

Without bothering to say goodbye, Sakura stalked away from the dark corner and to the middle of the club where the bar was. She'd gotten her fair share of alcohol, ran to a newly vacated table before anyone else noticed.

The tunes were now recognizable since she bought Zedd's albums on iTunes with her mother's credit card and blessing. She was able to sing along casually and felt a little more comfortable dancing alone thanks to her efforts to familiarize herself with club music.

Although she wasn't jumping as hard as Ino was. She wasn't stupid. That would shake her up and get her running for the toilet bowl in no time.

But wow, she really got her money's worth in their cocktails. She could feel her head lightening up all too quickly and she was getting drunk again. No wonder shit here costed thrice of what she would usually pay for around the university.

Sakura was quietly mixing her very expensive glass of margarita in her hand to keep the alcohol from sinking to the bottom. The words left her lips almost automatically as she sang to a Konohamaru remix of Die Young. Ke$ha had always been her guilty pleasure.

A hand grabbed her by the arm and tried to yank her to turn around but she resisted it. She hated being manhandled.

Sakura pulled her arm away with as much effort as she could and turned to whoever it was.

"Hey," he greeted as if he'd known her for a long time.

The thought of him hadn't crossed her mind since she shared lunch with Naruto and Hinata the day after her first time at the Valkyrie. She hadn't seen him since then. A part of her didn't think it was likely that they would meet again.

A part of her hoped she would tonight.

And here he was, beaming in front of her. And now that she had taken note of his boyish charm even while wearing a coat jacket, she realized it was hard to overlook. She also realized how hard it was not to return the smile—not when he looked so psyched to meet her again.

He wore his hair the same way he had when she first met him. Maybe it was his usual look, she assumed. Or perhaps it was coincidence.

"Hey yourself," she greeted back. Wait, was she biting her lip? Damn, they had good alcohol if they had her biting her lip. She had to stop biting her lip now.

She didn't think it possible but his grin grew slightly wider as he chuckled at her response. Deidara sighed and proceeded to smile at her again with this _look_ in his eyes. It was a familiar look—one she had seen before but can't seem to recall when or where.

He ran a hand through his hair as he shook his head subtly, as if trying to shake away a thought.

"I didn't think you'd come back, yeah," the blond stranger said easily.

Sakura shrugged and unconsciously crossed her arms. "I-I never actually thought about coming back. I just had to tonight because…"

Her eyes darted back to the spot where Ino and the pale and very skinny DJ were now laughing and drinking so comfortably. She looked back at Deidara and saw that he seemed to have gotten the gist.

"You're babysitting again tonight?" Deidara teased her, following it up with a wicked chuckle.

"Yeah," groaned the pinkie. "We were supposed to leave like… An hour ago, look at that! It's been an hour and—oh my gosh. I love this song."

While Sakura began singing her heart out to Lost At Sea, he cleared his throat and reached for the glass in her hand.

"I think you've had enough to drink."

Sakura raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Weird. I thought men wanted their ladies as drunk as possible?"

"Well, that's how they get the girl for the night," he answered and immediately following it with, "I don't keep that dirty trick up my sleeve because I wanna see you again, yeah."

Okay, she had to give him props. He was—

"Smooth," Sakura commended with a slow clap before he put his hand on hers and forced them to stop clapping. "You always this good with the ladies?"

The blond shrugged. "Does it matter? I'm serious. I do want to see you again. How about Sunday? Here. 10 p.m."

Next Sunday? But she had classes in the morning. Her class started at 8:00 and she needed at least eight hours of sleep if she wanted to function properly on her first day.

"I don't know," she said. "I've got an early schedule the day after."

Deidara threw his hands in the air. "So do I! But come on, this I swear—no other guy has ever thought of doing what I have in mind, yeah. Just trust me, okay? I'll be waiting. 10 p.m. on Sunday. In this very spot."

"Whatever," she said, not wanting to give him a direct answer. Not that she was worried about what he would feel if she ditched him but more worried that she was actually considering showing up.

She watched him lose himself in the music. Deidara had been drinking long before she arrived tonight, that was clear. He slightly bounced to _If I Lose Myself Tonight,_ singing to himself. When he noticed that she was watching, the blonde began singing to her in a very carefree way. Sakura laughed as he deliberately missed the notes to the song.

" _If I lose my self toniiight, it'll be you and I,"_ he sang. Sakura didn't budge but he continued closing in on her. "Come on, Sakura. I've seen you dance. You're not fooling me. Just let go."

She wanted to. She wanted to let go so badly of her hang-ups.

So she danced. Sakura didn't go all out like Ino did but she allowed herself to have a little good time tonight. They moved their bodies together but they never got to close to each other. Deidara wasn't content. She kept to her space while he reached out. He kept urging her to _let go_.

Had he any idea how much those two words meant to her? Sakura danced a little more, trying to convince him that this was her letting go and just having fun. He still wasn't convinced, she knew. She watched him watch her and she saw doubt in his eyes. Much like she always did in hers.

"I have to go," said Sakura. Her hands went to her pockets as she tried to locate her phone for the time. "It's already… Wait… Where's my phone?"

He handed his phone to her and had her dial her number in for it to ring. The marimba tones were muffled and it didn't help that the music was so loud. And the fact that Deidara was singing at the top of his lungs didn't help either.

But with all his moving around and dancing to the song, Sakura figured Deidara had hidden it. She grabbed him by his coat and pulled her phone out of his back pocket.

"You stole my phone?"

Deidara laughed but never ceased dancing. "Well, would you have given your number to me if I didn't?"

"I didn't give you my…" The realization of what just happened dawned on her and she didn't know if she was mad at him for tricking her or mad at herself that she was too stupid to not realize it sooner. "Unfair! Give me your phone!"

"Not in this lifetime, beautiful," he leaned into her and kissed the skin between her cheek and her ear. Before he disappeared into the crowd, waving her goodbye, he whispered to her.

 _I'll be waiting on Sunday, yeah._

* * *

 **Hope you all liked this chapter. I'll be back soon!**


	3. Indulgence

**Hello! Here it is! Enjoy the update!**

* * *

 _You're the one that I see waking up next to me  
_

 _And I hope it's the same for you_

 _But you play with my mind when you send me these signs_

 _And I see other guys get 'em too_

* * *

Saturday was spent trying to revise the first few chapters of their study. Sakura spent the whole day at Naruto and Sasuke's room. The blond offered his bed as Sakura's work area while he took the floor.

She accomplished what needed to be accomplished in half a day. Of course, she would have finished it earlier had it not been for Deidara.

 _ **From: 05*******  
**_ _Received: 9:10  
_ _Message: Hey. Sunday. 10pm. Valkyrie. You're coming right?_

That was only one of the six messages she received this morning. The afternoon was fairly quiet but by the time she returned to her room for dinner, her phone began to beep once more.

"Aren't you going to look at your phone?" asked Ino who was currently painting her nails on her bed.

Sakura was digging through a burger she bought from the cafeteria downstairs. She missed lunch to finalize all her revisions and she was famished as hell but she allowed herself a glance at her phone.

Seven messages.

"What the actual—" Sakura started. She licked her fingers and unlocked her phone.

 _You're going tomorrow, right?_

 _Sakura, are you at work or something?_

 _Tomorrow at 10, alright?_

 _Just text me if you have the time._

 _Hey, Sakura, I just need to know if you're going tomorrow._

 _Just tell me if you're going or not because I don't want to waste anything._

 _Sakura?_

"Well," her roommate said in as sing-song tone. "Who is it?"

There was a moment of indecision as she weighed her option between telling and not telling Ino she was possibly going to see a man she met at the club.

On one hand, it would be unfair to not tell Ino since she always tells her what the hell goes on in her life—even how salty the cafeteria's mac and cheese is. Plus, her roomie would always know what to do in situations like these and whether or not the guy could be trusted.

On the other hand, she'd teased Ino for going on dates with strangers she met at parties, most of which ended either really bad or worse. It was possible that Ino might also criticize her for… Well, the blond could criticize Sakura in ways unimagined.

Her mind was fuzzy and she blurted out the first name that came to her head. "It's Naruto," she said. "Uhh, he's asking if we could finish up tomorrow."

The blond narrowed her eyes and Sakura knew she'd told the wrong excuse. Ino was perceptive like that and she made it a thing to know everything that everyone had going on.

"I was at Hinata's room earlier," Ino said carefully. "She told me her beau was planning on taking her out for ramen tomorrow. So do you wanna try again or should I just snatch your phone?"

Sakura looked at her phone in deliberation before sighing. "I might be going out tomorrow."

Ino made a sound that Sakura could closely classify to a squeal and she was pretty sure the rest of the floor heard it too. The nail polish bottle on her bed spilled on the sheets but the blonde couldn't care less.

"Shut the fuck up!" Ino swung her legs over the bed and walked on her heels to slump awkwardly on Sakura's bed. "You've got a date?! Lemme see!"

"There's nail polish on your blanket," said the pinkie as she quickly took her phone and slid it into her shirt, making sure it caught in her bra.

Her roommate didn't even bother looking at her as she screamed. "I don't fucking care! Now spill the beans on your new beau or I'll pull that phone from your tits! Is he a hunk? Is he hot? Who's better in bed—him or the—"

Sakura pulled a pillow from behind her and hit Ino in the face before she could even finish it.

"I said I _might_ go out tomorrow," Sakura said flatly. "I've got a 7a.m. in the morning so I'm not really sure I wanna go. I mean I don't know. I don't think I want to but I feel like I should but I can't be—"

Ino waved her hands in Sakura's face. "Wow, if this were Ms. Universe Q&A, you just went viral. Now you're gonna start from the very top."

Sakura did.

And by the end of their conversation, the polish on Ino's bed and nails had dried up while she licked her fingers clean of the burger grease to pull her phone out and finally give Deidara an answer.

 _ **To: Deidara (Valkyrie)  
**_ _Sent: 22:29  
_ _Message: Yeah. See you tomorrow._

0-0-0-0-0-0

"So remember," started her roomie who was standing behind her to pull her hair into a bun. "If your vision starts swirling or blurring, you call me. I'm on speed dial. You sure there's not a last name to go with _Deidara_?"

Sakura sighed, pulling the hem of her little black dress downwards. "Yeah, mom. Don't worry. I'm not gonna get date-raped."

"Hey, bitch, date-rape drug ain't no joke," Ino said in a more serious tone. "I was only lucky Shikamaru was with me that night."

Talking with Ino took more than a couple of hours last night—mostly because Ino did most of the talking. When Sakura finally revealed that she was at a loss whether to go out with a guy she met in the club, her roommate didn't waste another second and conducted a seminar entitled _Guys You Meet in the Club._

The seminar didn't start without a teasing remark on Sakura's taste in men but Sakura cautioned Ino wasn't exactly in a position to lecture her about _taste in men._

"Look at my best friend," Ino said, taking a step back to admire Sakura's reflection in the mirror. "Only half a year since the breakup and you're already on a date with another hunk."

When she was finally done with everything, Sakura left the dorm and took Ino's car with her blessing. Before setting off, she checked her phone and found no new messages. None came after she replied last night.

Had he changed his mind?

She wanted to say she didn't give a damn but it just occurred to her that it mattered to her. The appreciation of some stranger actually mattered to her and her ego. Damn it.

It didn't take her long to find a decent parking space at the Valkyrie. It was a Sunday, after all.

9:30. That gave her enough time to touch up on her makeup, wait in line and look for him in the club. She checked and rechecked all her stuff her in purse including Ino's Swiss army knife, her very own pepper spray and the keys to the car.

There was no line to the entrance but when she got in the club, it was just as packed as always. Making her way to the dancefloor was just as hard as always but she made it in time.

House music filled the place. Lights weren't completely out but they were dimmed and lights from basic spotlights roamed the dancefloor lazily. The club had just opened up so people weren't exactly gyrating wildly just yet but there was a group of girls singing passionately to the current song, Roses.

9:45. He should be here anytime now.

Sakura left her purse on the table to grab herself a drink from the open bar. There was quite a while but, just as always, pink hair worked as fine as cleavages and heavy makeup.

10:00. Where was he?

10:05. Deidara was late.

10:10. She'd had it.

Deidara hounded her through text messages and kept on reminding her 10:00p.m. It was ten minutes past the agreed time. Now he got her wondering if she heard wrong.

Her eidetic memory begged to differ.

 _ **To: Deidara (Valkyrie)  
**_ _Sent: 22:12  
_ _Message: Valkyrie 10. I'm here._

 _ **From: Deidara (Valkyrie)  
**_ _Received: 22:14  
_ _Message: Situation. Will be there soon. Promise._

Sakura sipped at her rum cola. Her foot, clad in gladiator sandals borrowed from none other than her best friend, tapped in an unsteady rhythm impatiently.

"Hey."

She'd prepared quite the spiel to throw at Deidara for being late but whatever it was had dissolved at the sight of Kisame who was wearing only a black short-sleeved photo tucked in ripped jeans.

The frown she wore since a minute past 10, however, remained pasted on her face. Not even flattery in the way Kisame looked over her appreciatively was able to break her icy walls.

"Kisame, remember?"

Sakura crossed her arms in hostility. "I do. Where's your friend?"

"Deidara? No, we're not really _friends_. Close work acquaintances is more like it. Anyway, he's in a bit of trouble with the management."

She raised a brow. "Trouble? For what?"

"For you."

Taken aback, Sakura tried hard not to smile at that. Deidara, who had just met her, was in trouble for her. She tried searching for signs of sarcasm in Kisame's face but he didn't even flinch when he spoke.

"So… What does Deidara even do around here?"

Kisame shrugged, finishing a cup of a green drink she didn't even know he was holding.

"You'll see," he answered. "He's pulled all the stops for you. I've seen that kid try to get a girl. You should feel special, trust me."

As soon as Kisame said it, the lights dimmed down until there was only darkness and the song stopped. LED lights were now whirling all around the club and a mix of I Wanna Know began playing. The whole crowed cheered and raised their bottles and cups.

"I like that, yeah," his voice resounded through the sound system placed all around the club. "One more time, ladies. I wanna hear you!"

The spotlight on stage flashed a red beam towards one end of the stage to reveal Deidara with his hair in the usual half-ponytail. He was wearing a black hoodie with a white shirt underneath, a pair of jeans and were those _Air Jordan_ sneakers?

The crowd cheered again, only this time, she heard more squeals from the ladies. On the other table, a lady, not much older than herself, began to fangirl and started jumping uncontrollably.

"It's him! It's him!" exclaimed the woman. "He's baaack!"

One of her friends pulled her by the arm while laughing uncontrollably before she signed for the fangirl to keep it down.

Sakura turned her attention back to Deidara who had put down the mic and slipped on some gigantic headphones, leaving one ear free. The light focusing on him slowly shifted colors as the smoke machines began to emit a light fog from behind him.

And edited typography of his name flashed on the giant screen behind him. _Deidara_ , in big yellow script letters, remained on the screen, shaking every now and then. On the bottom right, a slanted word— _bang_ —kept appearing and disappearing every few seconds.

 _I've been hit by stars_

 _A beauty you are, a beauty you are_

 _Day turns into night_

 _You light up my dark, you light up my dark_

And in that moment, Sakura couldn't help but smile. She looked to Kisame who had been looking at her from the corner of his eye.

"He never told me he was a DJ," Sakura said over the music. She sipped on her cup to hide her smile when she realized she was grinning like a mad man.

The huge man shrugged. "He never likes to tell anyone. It's his big move when it comes to the ladies. Why am I even telling you this? Just shut up, pinkie, and enjoy the music. I gotta go. Got work to do."

And with that, Kisame left his glass on her table with Sakura who was now looking up on stage at the stranger who just happened to be her date for tonight.

Sakura wasn't sure which one was wilder—the lights or the crowd. It was only the beginning of the set and she could feel everyone around her already hyped up. It only led her to wonder just how long the people around her have been drinking.

The smoke machines on the end of the stage started fuming white smoke in the air and the crowd cheered.

In the middle of it all, she still felt her phone vibrate.

 _ **From: Deidara (Valkyrie)  
**_ _Received: 22:20  
_ _Message: I see you_

She didn't bother replying. She didn't want to disturb him but when she looked up at Deidara again, Sakura found that he was looking in her direction with that easy grin on his face again. How the hell he could even see her through the lazer lights and jumping crowd was a mystery.

After I Wanna Know came Beautiful Now which was one of her more frequently listened-to songs in her playlist. And then there was Footprints and a lot more songs she didn't know yet.

On the last song, the smoke machines went off again but this time, with confetti mixed in. And they were _pink_. Of course, they were.

It took an hour and half a dozen trips to the bar before Deidara finished the opening set. The gang of women beside her disappeared, no doubt to stalk the good-looking DJ.

 _ **From: Deidara (Valkyrie)  
**_ _Received: 23:30  
_ _Message: Meet me at the stairs behind the open bar_

Sakura sipped on her half-empty glass of margarita— _Was that even margarita?—_ before she walked away from her table as another DJ took over for another set.

She had to nudge her way through a group of some middle-aged foreigners who kept calling her attention and walk around the puke of some girl she knew from the university for her to get to the spot where Deidara said he was.

And there he stood, with his hoodie draped over his shoulder. His back was on the wall while his hands were tucked in his pockets.

With a serious expression painted on, Sakura approached him.

"Hey," he greeted.

She didn't twitch.

"You liked it."

It wasn't a question. He was stating it confidently which was enough to elicit a reaction from her.

Deidara, who had been waiting for any sort of reply, laughed when she finally smiled at him like she couldn't keep it inside anymore. With minimal effort, he pushed himself off of the wall.

"Whatever," came her reply as she rolled her eyes. "You never told me you were a fucking DJ!"

"What did you think I do around here?"

 _Clean tables_ , she thought to herself. Of course, she wasn't going to admit that to him. In due time, perhaps, but not now. Especially not with that smug look on his face that was daring her to admit she'd been somehow wrong about him.

Her bare shoulders raised as Sakura crossed her arms.

"Wanna get out of here?" asked the blond, looking around cautiously. "I wanted to treat you for a drink upstairs but I'm not up to entertaining any fans tonight."

"Where do you suggest we go?"

Deidara shrugged. "It'd be nice to see you in place more decent compared to this. Do you wanna sober up and have coffee or something? There's a café on the other end of the district."

"That'd be nice."

0-0-0-0-0-0

The two went off to look for Kisame to say goodbye before they walked more than a few blocks to find the café her date had been talking about. With a confident and spirited soul like Deidara, the walk was far from quiet and Sakura kept up with him just fine.

"Alright, alright," he chuckled, stirring his cup of cappuccino. "Favorite fruit, then?"

The café was called _Indulgence_ and had an extensive selection of pastries, waffles, coffee and shakes. Deidara got himself a regular cappuccino while Sakura ordered an Oreo milkshake and a couple of cupcakes.

She raised a brow. "Are you expecting me to say _cherry_ or _strawberry_?"

"Not really," the blond immediately replied. "I mean I wouldn't be surprised if you did but I'd rather be surprised, yeah."

"Lemons," answered the pink-haired woman as she took a bite out of her red velvet cupcake. "And don't look at me! I'm eating! What's _your_ favorite fruit?"

"Cherries."

"You're kidding," she said flatly behind the hand that was covering her mouth as she chewed.

"Hn. I never kid about cherries," said Deidara. He raised his cup, maintaining a serious expression, before he took a sip. Sakura stared at him with narrowed eyes and he set his cup on the table again. "What? I'm serious."

So far, this had been the flow of their conversation since they left the Valkyrie. Favorite movie. Favorite actors. Favorite color. Favorite everything. If they went to the gym. What kind of music and food they liked.

She told her personal information but not the kind to reveal her identity. He was doing the same thing.

Beside the face that Deidara was a self-aware ladies' man, she also discovered that he liked action and comedy movies, he _idolized_ James Franco and drooled over Angelina Jolie and he liked the color red. He worked out but thought going to the gym was a waste of time. He claimed to like all kinds of music and hated Chinese.

Well, at least she knew one thing—she and Deidara had little to nothing in common.

"Do you smoke?" she asked.

He pursed his lips. "That depends."

"On what?" Sakura frowned at him.

"Do you date smokers?" He leaned in and wriggled his eyebrows at her.

She scoffed. "No."

"Then the answer to your question is that I used to smoke," said Deidara as he leaned back into his seat. He scowled as well when Sakura's expression remained unchanged. "Hey, I just want you to like me, yeah.

Sakura raised her brow. She seemed to be doing a lot of this tonight.

"I'm out of the club with you, aren't I?"

"So you like me then," he concluded with a smile.

 _Unbelievable_ , she thought to herself.

"I know you like me too," she told him incredibly. Her eyes were widening to the size of plates. "Isn't that why we're out here? Isn't that why you asked me to go out with you and I agreed? Do you have trust issues because I don't do that kind of baggage anymore."

He eyed her for a moment. It felt as if he was about to say something but he looked away as if the thought passed or he had dismissed it.

If he was concerned about bringing up some sort of problem to the conversation, she really didn't mind talking about her problems. Deidara seemed genuinely curious but was cautious not to strike a nerve. Plus points.

"I just didn't want you to think of me as some one-night stand kind of guy," he sighed.

Her face twisted into a grimace. "I wasn't even thinking about…"

"Oh," the blond said, trying not to sound too disappointed. "I'm sorry."

And Sakura laughed. Her laughter filled the air of the nearly empty café a few minutes before midnight and it was enough to lighten the heaviness in his chest that he didn't even notice until she laughed.

He watched her throw her head back and cover her mouth as she laughed. Consciously, Sakura looked to the staff to see if she was causing a scene despite the lack of a public. Some of the strands of her hair fell out of the bun and he was half tempted to just pull the hair tie and let those beautiful locks down her bare shoulder.

"I'm kidding!" She said as her laughter died down. "I mean I'm not really thinking about _that_ but it's totally fine if you are."

It was the first time he'd ever seen her laugh like she did and it was hard not to get hungover her happiness. She was just as enchanting as he'd hope she would be.

"Really," replied Deidara in an uncertain tone.

"Come on. I didn't come into a club wearing a dress this short and think I was gonna get out of there without my ass getting checked out at least once. It's my first time in a club, yeah, but I'm not an innocent kid."

The DJ sighed. "Well, it _is_ a great ass."

"Of course it is," she said smugly before finishing the last of her cupcake. "I worked hard on that."

"You're weird."

"Thank you."

She wasn't sarcastic. Sakura was actually taking _weird_ as a compliment. Well, he didn't even mean it in a bad way in the first place but most women tend to misunderstand when a guy calls them _weird_.

He and she had nothing in common.

She liked documentaries and mysteries and movies that weren't conventional. She looked up to Helena Bonham-Carter and admired Mark Ruffalo for his Bruce Banner portrayal from some superhero movie. She liked the color white.

But it was in this moment, as he watched her watch him as she put her straw between her lips, that he knew he had found his muse.

He had found her in a fucking club. And she had fucking pink hair. But he didn't fucking care.

"So why aren't you worried about being outside with a stranger in the middle of the night?" Deidara asked. He saw the corner of her lip tug into a smirk and he found it somewhat sexy.

"I'm not telling you why," she said, as if it were so obvious. "That's my advantage. And is it the middle of the night already?"

Pulling her phone out of her purse, she grimaced when she realized it was already nearing midnight.

"You've got an early thing tomorrow, right?"

Sakura nodded. "Uhuh. And I've gotta go."

"Well, I guess I have to get up early tomorrow morning too. Should I drive you?"

"It's okay," she said, packing her purse up. "I've got my friend's car parked back at the Valkyrie. Remember? I was dragging her ass out of the club when we first met. Anyway, you can walk me back."

0-0-0-0-0-0

Deidara asked her to send him a text when she arrived _home_ just to make sure she made it safely.

On her way back to the university, Ino texted her, asking how she was doing and she replied at a stoplight that she was already on her way back and that nothing bad happened during the date.

 _ **To: Deidara (Valkyrie)  
**_ _Sent: 00:54  
_ _Message: I'm home. Thanks for tonight. Goodnight._

 _ **From: Deidara (Valkyrie)  
**_ _Received: 00:58  
_ _Message: That's great. Just got at the apartment. Text me when you're free. Goodnight._

Upon opening the door to their dorm room, Ino threw herself at her best friend and locked her arms around the pinkette, begging her to spill the details.

Sakura could only spare her the basics like they went to a café for a midnight snack and that he offered to drive her home and that he was a friggin DJ at the Valkyrie and Ino's jaw threatened to drop on the floor.

"He's a DJ?!" she screamed. "Son of a bitch! You scored, girl! You know how great those guys are in bed?"

The pinkette pulled the dress over her head and threw it at Ino.

"Keep it down, bitch," said Sakura, putting a finger to her lip. "We don't want the whole dormitory to know I just got home from a date, right? There are snitches on our floor. And no, Ino, I didn't consider sleeping with him tonight."

Ino grinned. " _Tonight,_ " she repeated.

Sakura shrugged. "Well, he's handsome and all but I don't do sex on the first few dates."

"You don't do sex on dates," corrected the blonde. "You do sex in serious relationships and look where that got your virginity. In the trunk of some guy upstairs."

"Shut up," she answered bitterly. "I just wasn't thinking about sex at all."

"Alright, alright," Ino said in a resigned tone. "I'm going to bed. I've got a 9 a.m. tomorrow morning."

"Speak for yourself. I've got a 7 a.m. minor class in the morning."

Sakura failed to realize that she forgot to set an alarm for 6 a.m. and woke up far too late the next day.

0-0-0-0-0-0

He hadn't gotten any sleep when he arrived home and he cursed himself for his low caffeine tolerance. The rest of the night had been spent watching the Expendables movies and anticipating the shooting and bombing sequence.

Half of the time, he was thinking about Sakura and the small talk over midnight coffee. Occasionally, he glanced over at his work space and his unfinished piece but decided he was still in no mood to work.

Several hours later, an alarm he'd set a few days back for 6 a.m. went off and he automatically walked into the bathroom for a shower. He put on a typography shirt and a pair of jeans.

After which, he heated water for another cup of coffee he needed to function the rest of the day and some instant noodles which served as his breakfast.

Deidara slipped on his university hoodie, grabbed his backpack and his keys and drove to Omphalos University.

He was almost late for Philosophy 401 but thankfully, the professor was interrupted during the noting of attendance and he was able to slip in the classroom unnoticed.

As expected, during the first day of classes for what was usually a minor subject to other majors, the classroom was only half-full. Or half-empty. He guessed the most of the people in the room right now were Philosophy majors.

The professor once again returned to call on everyone.

"Gaara?"

"Present."

"Goran?"

"Present."

"Gutaiza? No? Habiko?"

"Present."

"Haruno? No? Absent. Henairo?"

"Present."

This is what he hated about asking to list himself without a last name. His name had already been called and he was already listed as _absent_. Well, running across the hall had been a waste of time.

Seated in the very back row of the room, Deidara pulled out his laptop discreetly and popped in his earbuds and proceeded to create a new mix. He was going to be here for the next two hours. What else was he supposed to do?

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed the update! I'll be back soon. I'm currently working on Under The Heir's update and brainstorming some other fanfic ideas.**

 **I'm also in the middle of a very long BoruSara fic so stay tuned for that!**

 **See ya'll soon! Favorite, follow and leave a review. Makes good inspiration, you know? Thanks!**


	4. Minor Course, Major Revelation

**Sorry this took so long. I was supposed to have it up the day after I uploaded the new Under the Heir chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

 _And the sun has fallen_

 _And the backbeat's telling truths_

 _That you want to hear_

 _And you want to hear again_

* * *

It was lunch and Sakura was in the cafeteria, playing a third wheel to Naruto and Hinata.

She only had one class for today—an elective called Publicity Techniques at 9:00 in the morning and she had upset her to have to get up so early in the morning for just the one class she had today.

Luckily, Naruto was in the same class as her while Sasuke had chosen a different elective course. After their class, Naruto invited her to have lunch with him and Hinata and Sakura couldn't see a reason why she couldn't tag along.

Over her meal, she watched the two lovebirds charming the crap out of each other with their googly eyes and their entwined fingers.

Sakura had been just as in love as they were once. Over a year ago, she was in a relationship with Uchiha Sasuke. They spent a lot of time together in his room when Naruto was out with volleyball friends.

Sometimes, Sasuke would take her out of town or just ask her to come with him on a road trip that usually ends up in some motel or sometimes at the Hokage's cliff where they would drink beer and fool around.

Her love life was almost perfect. Almost. In campus, their relationship was practically invisible. He would only hold her hand under the lunch table. It was hard to coax him in public when he was pissed because he would only give her the cold shoulder when she tried to be sweet with him.

Little by little, Sakura started to notice what was wrong with the relationship than to cherish what was there until she finally spoke out.

They broke up midway in their third year of college. Whether it was Sasuke who had completely blocked her out or Sakura who had given up, she wasn't so sure anymore and she didn't care to find out.

Naruto brought a small piece of cake to the raven's lips. Before Hinata could even take it in her mouth, her pale eyes went over to Sakura's and she instantly tensed at the attention.

"I'm sorry," the pinkette said before concentrating on her lunch.

Hinata pulled away from the blond grasp. "It's okay, Sakura-san. I'm sorry… This must make you feel uncomfortable."

"Are you kidding? I feel like I'm the one making you uncomfortable," she huffed.

"N-No, you're not," said the Hyuuga as she took the fork from Naruto's hands and ate the cake herself. "So, how is your first week of classes?"

In the back of Sakura's mind, her inner self groaned at the thought of the first day of her last year in the university. She didn't show up in class having woken up some hours later after the class started.

"I'm doing well," she said in a nonchalant tone. "Film was nice but I guess Naruto told you all about it. Sasuke had to move to another seat because your man practically peed his pants when Dr. Jiraiya introduced himself in front of class."

Hinata giggled while Naruto's cheeks were tinted pink.

"You haven't watched any of his films yet," protested the blond.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "If they're anything like the books he writes, I don't think I want to. What about you, Hinata? How's vet for you?"

"Really good but microbiology is so much harder that it looks," Hinata sighed. "But I have a classmate, Shino, who is helping me out. Oh, I have to meet him at the library today. Naruto-kun, I have to go."

"What? Now?" Groaned the blond. "Okay then. Text me when you get to the library, okay?"

Hinata grabbed her backpack as she got up from her seat before she dipped down and planted a quick kiss on Naruto's lip.

"Bye, Sakura-san," said the raven. "See you soon!"

Sakura watched Naruto watch the woman gracefully turn away and head for the exit of the cafeteria. He smiled to himself and Sakura was itching to tease her friend but she decided against it and moved on to discuss a more important topic.

"Hey, Naruto, you sent the questionnaire to Kakashi-sensei last night, right?" The blond nodded. "Did he say how long it was going to take until he would send it back?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. He said he was going to send it back on Saturday."

"Saturday, huh," she said as if she were speaking with herself. "Well, that should give me plenty of time to do some advanced reading on Friday. Let's meet Saturday after your 12pm. But anyway, are you doing anything else today?"

"Nah," he said. "I didn't know Hinata was going to meet with her friend so I assumed we were gonna hang the whole day. But since she's busy, you wanna go back to the room and watch a movie? I just downloaded a torrent of Dawn of Justice and Clockwork Orange."

Sakura smiled. "Clockwork Orange sounds good."

0-0-0-0-0-0

"Holy shit, man," she groaned, gesturing at the television screen. "Just let them leave. How many more rounds can this guy possibly go?"

Both their eyes were transfixed on the vivid colors of the movie Clockwork Orange while they were seated on the space on the floor between Sasuke and Naruto's beds. The lights were out.

They were on the scene when the protagonist was having a threesome with two women.

Naruto laughed quietly. "Gotta say, I envy the reboot time. The guy can go for hours and I don't think he's running out of semen just yet."

Sakura passed him the can of Pringles with her clean hand but Naruto declined before sticking his hand into his bag of Cheetos.

"So," she started absentmindedly. "Did you and Hinata do the nasty yet?"

The blond almost choked on the last handful of chips he stuffed in his mouth and she snatched the remote from the edge of the bed and hit pause before she assisted her friend by handing him her water bottle.

Naruto took it and chugged the whole thing.

"God dammit, Sakura-chan," he said after catching his breath. "Don't ask questions like that out of nowhere!"

Sakura laughed. "I'm sorry, okay? I was just curious. We did just watch a sex scene so the thought just crossed my mind. Wait, hold that thought."

Her phone, which she placed on Naruto's side table, vibrated twice and she retrieved and unlocked it with one hand.

 ** _From: Deidara  
_** _Received: 14:21  
_ _Message: Hey._

Deidara hadn't contacted her ever since she arrived home at the dorm after their date last Sunday. Yeah, she was itching to text him to ask how he was or whatever but she didn't want to bother him. And she was too busy.

He had been the first guy she went out with after her breakup with Sasuke and she was so afraid of so many things.

But at least now she wasn't worrying about Deidara losing interest in her.

Maybe he'd seen other women when he wasn't texting her and they decided to ditch him so he was going to her for rebound. Maybe he texted her because he felt guilty for not reaching her?

Whatever it was didn't matter because she felt relieved that he'd finally texted her again.

 ** _To: Deidara  
_** _Sent: 14:22  
_ _Message: Hey_

"Who is it?" Asked the blond as he pounded his chest with a balled fist.

Sakura shook her head. "Just a classmate from another class. So, you haven't answered the question just yet. Did you and Hinata do the dance without the pants?"

Just as soon as Sakura asked the question, the door opened and Ssauke stood in the doorway, looking at the two of them with both intrigue and annoyance. Of course, annoyance was an emotion easy enough to detect on the Uchiha's face.

The slightly raised eyebrow, however, was a dead giveaway of his curiosity. He might as well have asked them "What the hell is going on?"

"Movie?" Sakura asked with faux sweetness, patting the space next to her.

Her phone vibrated again but she schooled her expression when she opened her phone.

 ** _From: Deidara  
_** _Received: 14:22  
_ _Message: Go out with me Saturday?_

Sakura put her phone away and focused on her ex-boyfriend who was still standing in the doorway. She wasn't sure why but all Sasuke's messages asking her out and all his naughty whispering suddenly rushed back to her.

Sasuke closed the door behind him but didn't join them on the floor. Instead, he seated himself on the edge of his bed.

"Clockwork Orange," he stated in a matter-of-factly tone. "Watched it already but don't let me get in the way. I just have to get an article done."

Naruto shrugged and pressed play on the movie while Sakura opened her phone and kept it out of Sasuke's line of sight (not that he would even care) and composed her reply to Deidara's text message.

 ** _To: Deidara  
_** _Sent: 14:27  
_ _Message: I can't go out on Saturday. Busy. Next time, okay?_

* * *

Deidara was hoping he could get a little distraction this coming Saturday.

His Saturdays were only scheduled with project consultation and so far, he was doing great with his project and he didn't need his professor to criticize it. Not yet. Not when he was so inspired to do it. His professor could at least let him finish it before pointing out all the flaws.

Today was his free day and he decided to spend the morning molding the clay for his sculpture before his alarm rang and reminded him to finish his mixes for his gigs.

Then he realized if was looking to date Sakura, he was going to need another source of income than the Valkyrie.

But of course, that wasn't guaranteed just yet.

Sakura was the first in a long line of women that he had asked on a second date just because he didn't get to nail her on the first. Sex was off the table. He was just genuinely curious about her.

During the last few days, he had been busy with his classes and his sculpting project for his final.

He hadn't completely forgotten about her during the time. In fact, a part of him hoped that she would text him first but after not hearing from her for the third day in a row, Deidara was frantic.

Deidara hardly got any sleep last night, wondering how he could see her again.

He didn't even know what she did. Was she a waitress? Did she work in some fancy company? Did Sakura even work? Was she a student like him?

His only free time this week was Saturday since he had classes at lunch hours and had a few gigs later in the evening.

If she said no or said she already had plans this coming Saturday, then he was going to take it as a sign that it simply wasn't meant to be with this girl.

 ** _From: Sakura  
_** _Received: 14:27  
_ _Message: I can't go out on Saturday. Busy. Next time, okay?_

Okay, now he was torn. He told himself he was going to let it go if she declined. But she was hoping to see him after all.

"Hey," a voice said from behind him, making him almost jump out of his skin.

He turned around and found Sasori who he'd been friends with since sophomore year sitting on the window sill that led to an emergency fire exit. Between his fingers was a roll of paper whose smoke was thicker than that of a cigarette's.

In the middle of editing his music, he received a text from the redhead who was looking for a place to hang since his classes had just ended.

At first, Deidara thought it would be a good idea to have the company of a fellow art student and fellow talent at Akatsuki Productions. It would be nice to exchange artistic views and all.

However, he instantly regret his decision when he opened the door to a red-eyed Sasori.

"Asshole," sneered Deidara. He put his phone next to his laptop before he pushed the computer chair from the desk to allow himself room to get up. "You smoke that shit out of here, yeah."

His friend was high and the blond was almost tempted to push the guy off of the sill and confine him to the fire exit. But there was a police station across the street and he doubted Sasori would put out the joint and waste a good stick.

"But there's a guy downstairs," he said, almost in a dazy voice. "I think he saw me."

Deidara cursed under his breath and pulled Sasori away from the window and shut it. "Just smoke it in the bathroom and fucking suffocate to death. I don't want my place smelling like marijuana."

"What's your problem," asked Sasori, wading through the living room. "It's not like you haven't smoked this shit before."

"I stopped smoking joint and cigarettes and whatever it is there is to smoke, okay?" he said before resuming his work. "Besides, I wouldn't smoke in here if I were you. Neighbors are snitches, yeah. If you wanna finish that shit, do it in the bathroom or you're out."

"Whatever."

* * *

She and Ino barely saw each other in their dorm room this week.

While Sakura had been busy with her Communication workload and buddies, Ino was busy balancing her academics and her social life just as Sakura suspected she would be doing.

Some nights, Sakura would arrive in the dorm where Ino was just getting ready to turn in for the day if she wasn't already asleep. One time, it was the other way around. The other nights, there would only be a note behind the door where they hung their jackets saying " _Out Partying. See you in the morning!_ "

But they never did see each other in the morning.

Sakura's normal routine was to get to bed early and wake up at 3:00 in the morning to study in the Concentration Zone in their dorm which was empty around those hours. By that hour, her best friend had already arrived and was out cold under her sheets.

After Sakura accomplished all she had to, she would return to the dorm only to find Ino already on her way to the bathroom or to class.

It was a Sunday evening and Sakura had just come back from Naruto and Sasuke's room after two whole days of research and revisions. Their adviser had just approved their survey questions and Naruto and Sasuke were tasked to visit all three production studios this week.

Ino was blasting The 1975 on her laptop. She was in a tank top and pajama shorts while Sakura wore denim jeans and a soft green shirt.

The blonde practically ran to her and threw herself to her best friend.

"Forehead!" Ino exclaimed. "I missed you so much! Man, I have never missed you this bad."

Sakura wriggled out of Ino's arms. "Missed you too, Ino."

"Whatevs," she said before flopping down on her mattress. "So I went back to the Valkyrie this week. Tuesday, I think. I was expecting to see your beau there but he wasn't."

"Maybe he's only scheduled on weekends?" Said Sakura with an unsure shrug. "I don't know."

Ino raised a brow. "Waddaya mean you _don't know_? I mean, you _are_ dating, right?"

Sakura shrugged again. "I just didn't hear from him this week. Deidara did text me last Thursday. He asked me out but I was busy yesterday so—"

"What did you tell him?" the blonde said, her voice raised in alarm. She propped herself on an elbow and looked at Sakura seriously.

"I told him I was busy but I did tell him we could go out some other time."

"What did he say about that?" asked the blonde quietly.

Another shrug. "I don't know. He didn't really reply."

Her roommate groaned and slapped her forehead with her palm. Sakura ignored the reaction and proceeded to retrieve her towel from her cabinet. She'd yet to take a bath today and after a whole day on Naruto's bed, she was more than excited for a good bath.

Now that she thought of it, Deidara never did reply. Maybe he'd lost interest? Or maybe he was discouraged by such a casual _no_ from her?

It wasn't that it didn't bother her. She just wouldn't let it. Deidara was probably the first in the long line of men she'd have to go through again to find the right one.

Or maybe he could be the one.

"You blew it," groaned Ino, tapping the spacebar on her laptop. The music stopped. "You had a perfectly great guy and from what you told me, it sounded like he was trying to get into more than your pants."

Sakura unintentionally slammed her cabinet door. "Well, what was I supposed to do? Ditch the biggest paper of my education to go out with a DJ I barely even know?"

The blonde didn't dignify the question with even a sound and Sakura left for the bathrooms in peace.

There weren't a lot of people inside the shower rooms. One two cubicles were taken and by the time she'd placed her shower caddy on the hook, the other person had gotten out, leaving her alone with whoever was left.

She hadn't even pulled her shirt off yet when she heard a sound from somewhere else in the bathroom.

First there was heavy breathing and sighing. And then there was the familiar sound of skin on skin. Whoever was left in here must have thought they were alone. Obviously, there was more than one other person left with her since she two individuals panting.

Normally, Sakura wouldn't be fazed by this. This wasn't the first time in her four years of college that she walked in on people having sex. In fact, she'd walked in on stranger places to have sex in.

Truth be told, she was a little turned on right now but not too bad that she had to take care of it. Yeah, sure, she missed sex but Sakura never actually tried to pleasure herself. Well, not since she started dating Sasuke, at least.

But what she heard next was enough for her to grab her shower caddy and run quietly for the hills like some ninja assassin.

"N-Naruto-kun," she heard the woman mewl.

Her eyes widened and she froze on the spot. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to stay for the whole audio broadcast but her instincts nudged her to grab her stuff and tiptoe the fuck out of the bathroom.

It had barely been three minutes since she left the room.

When she returned, Ino had resumed her The 1975 session with her nose buried in some medical book.

Blue eyes rose from the pages of the book and looked at Sakura menacingly.

"So you finally realize that you were actually wrong beca—"

The pinkette interrupted her best friend. "Hinata and Naruto are having sex in the shower room."

"The fuck?!"

Ino jolted out of bed, practically pushing Sakura from the doorway as she made a quick beeline to the shower. Sakura watched from the inside of the room as Ino stepped carefully into the shower rooms.

Seconds later, the blonde ran for their room and shut the door behind her.

"Well?" whispered Sakura.

Ino nodded frantically. "Yup, that's Hinata alright. But we can't be too sure about Naruto."

"As if Hinata would let another guy do what's being done to her," said Sakura incredibly. "Plus, we've got one other way of confirming whether it _is_ Naruto. Give me a minute."

The pinkette rushed to her bedside table and grabbed her phone.

"You're not—"

Sakura interrupted her roomie. "We have to know."

 ** _To: Uchiha Sasuke  
_** _Sent: 19:55  
_ _Message: Hey. Got bad reception? I've been calling. Ask Naruto if he still has my flash drive._

 ** _From: Uchiha Sasuke  
_** _Received: 19:56  
_ _Message: He's out._

 ** _To: Uchiha Sasuke  
_** _Sent: 19:56  
_ _Message: Know where? Kind of important. Gotta find him._

 ** _From: Uchiha Sasuke  
_** _Received: 19:57  
_ _Message: Hinata's room. Where else?_

Ino and Sakura's jaws dropped to the floor. Slowly, they turned to each other in awe. Neither of them could speak.

All these years, they knew Hinata was the kind and sweet girl from across the hall. She wouldn't hurt a fly. And while every other man was fantasizing about her and her very impressive chest, neither Sakura nor Ino ever thought of her like that.

Of course, Sakura wouldn't. But Ino. Ino's libido was stimulated by both genders but because Hinata was so sweet, Sakura never heard the blonde talk about the Hyuuga that way.

"Well," sighed Sakura. "Naruto never did answer my question. I asked him if he'd already—you know—did it with her. Sasuke came in before the moron could answer but I don't think he planned on telling me."

The blonde ran her hands through her hair. "Hinata-chan. Not sweet Hinata-chan. My god, how could Naruto defile her like that?!"

"You're just mad because you didn't get to ever picture her naked."

"Damn right, I am!"

* * *

He wanted to see Sakura last Saturday in hopes that it might actually inspire him to continue working on his final piece yesterday. But since she was unavailable, the clay of the sculpture in the corner of his apartment already hardened.

Four days. That's how long Sakura could inspire him without actually talking to him.

Was it weird that he was actually able to measure just how much someone inspired him?

Sakura was a natural mystery and pink was a color he could barely use in his drawings and paintings. But ever since he met her, all his submitted art pieces were subtly touched with pink.

But he couldn't carry over his fascination with Sakura to his final piece and it tore him to not know why.

Perhaps he had to see her again.

It was an easy drive from his apartment to campus though he was still half an hour late for class. Stupid alarm. Because he woke up late, he threw on the first things he pulled from his dresser which happened to be a blue shirt and black denims.

By the time he'd slid the door open, the class had already begun. The students were all pulling out their notebooks while the professor was talking to a pink-haired student in front of class who looked a lot like—

Wait a minute.

Just as he stopped to take a good look at the student in front, the professor noticed him.

"Ah, you!" Their instructor said, pointing his finger at him. "Yes, you, late guy! I was just about to discuss a paper with the class. The activity will require a partner. Since everyone's already paired up, you two latecomers can mate and produce an insightful paper."

Sakura looked up from the professor and her jaw practically fell to the floor as she gave him a look just as disbelieving as the look he was throwing her.

She was wearing a black shirt over dark skinny jeans while a hoodie was draped over her shoulder. Her hair was tied in a ponytail carelessly.

The professor nudged Sakura to move to the aisle and approach him and she did as she was instructed. She walked up the aisle and he allowed her to squeeze into the row he was about to sit in.

He liked sitting by the aisle.

He dropped his bag under the table and watched her do the same from the corner of his eye.

Slowly, he leaned to his side and whispered. "Hey," before he sat back up.

"Hey," she said quietly.

When he looked at her, Sakura was slipping on the hoodie. By the time she'd put it on her ponytail was a mess and she pulled the hair tie from her easily identifiable pink locks.

"I didn't see you last week," said the blonde.

"Stupid alarm didn't wake me up right," she groaned while rolling her eyes. "Do you have any notes on the lecture last week? Or can you catch me up? Anything?"

Deidara swallowed the hard lump in his throat before he answered sheepishly. "I wasn't really paying attention last week."

"That's okay," she said.

He watched as his new partner bent down and reached for her bag to pull out a thick ass notebook and a pencil case filled with colored pens and tiny Post-It pads.

"We'll catch up later," she said, flipping through the pages of her notebook. "You don't mind if I take notes, right?

Deidara subtly raised his hands. "By all means, yeah."

A few minutes after Sakura started focusing on the lecture, Deidara had pulled his laptop from his backpack along with a set of wireless earphones. He only had to pass this class.

It didn't really matter to him if he learned anything in Philosophy or not. Usually, for minor subjects, he used the time to design or sketch out his prospect for a sculpture or edit music.

Unless the professor says the quizzes are a significant part of the grade, he just borrowed—or _secretly_ borrowed—his classmate's notes and studied the night before. It worked well for him. He was graduating, wasn't he?

Every now and then, Sakura would raise a question and he would spare her a very intrigued look which she was too busy to notice.

It was strange. Two years as a DJ at the Valkyrie and he never met the women he flirted with inside the campus. Save for the one woman he once saw at the courtyard of the university a few weeks after their encounter, that was it.

He never saw them outside of their short skirts and heavy makeup and intoxicated state.

Deidara had already seen the woman beside him without alcohol. She was bold but at the same time very careful. Sakura was amazing when drunk and even more amazing with sober.

This was the first time he had ever seen her without makeup and she was still stunning. It was in her smile.

And for some reason, Classroom Sakura reminded him a lot of Hermoine from those Harry Potter movies. With or without credit, she was going to ask and answer a lot of questions.

It couldn't be just so the professor remembers her, he knew. She had pink hair. Anyone would remember the girl with pink hair in their class even if she didn't do much talking.

The Sakura sitting beside him right now was a student in all sense. Her attention could not be pulled from the lesson even though he accidentally turned off his earphones and his laptop blasted loud music for a good four seconds.

Everyone in the room turned to him. Everyone except the professor and Sakura.

After the professor dismissed them, Deidara shut his laptop and slid it into his pack while Sakura closed her notebook and pulled her bag from under the table.

"What's your hurry?" Deidara said with a chuckle.

"Nothing," she said with a smile. "I'm just used to running out of the classroom first. Saves a lot of time. Plus, I have a major subject at 3 p.m. so I have to get lunch… Well, _brunch_. Wanna get something to eat?"

He smirked. "I've got a 12 p.m. major so… Brunch sounds good."

* * *

It was all so surreal for Sakura.

Just last night, she had been so worried that she might actually have blown it and now, across the lunch table at the Liberal Arts building was Deidara.

On their way down the building, they discovered that they've both been going to the same university for four years though he arrived in the university a year earlier than she did.

Apparently, he failed some pre-requisite major subject during his first year and was held back ever since.

"What are you taking up, anyway?" asked the blonde as he unwrapped the cheap burger he bought.

Sakura shrugged. "Communication Arts."

"Ah yes," he said, resting his elbows on the table and leaning in with a smug look. "You artsy people with your cinematography and your Spoken Word Poetry. You're the crowd at indie music festivals."

"Screw you and screw that stereotype," she retorted as she rolled her eyes at him. Deidara laughed. "What about you, huh?"

"Fine Arts," he said, suppressing a chuckle. "Sculpting to be precise, yeah."

This time, it was her turn to smirk as she spoke. "Ah, you artsy people with your Picasso and your Da Vinci and your Venus de Milo."

He raised a brow at her but innocently looked away when he threw her a mean look. Instead of entertaining it, he merely took a bit out of the burger and drummed the fingers of his free hand on the table.

Sakura raised her brow. "What?"

"Venus de Milo's the only sculpture you know, huh?" he said as he failed to hide his smirk.

She huffed. "For your information, I know plenty of sculptures. I just thought saying _Venus de Milo_ would make me sound, you know, snotty like you art majors. And yes, that's what everyone in campus thinks about you guys."

He shrugged. "Screw the stereotype."

Sakura opened the plastic container which held her pesto pasta brunch and started digging in immediately. She didn't at all mind that Deidara was looking. Let him watch her eat!

As they did during their midnight coffee at the business district, they kept exchanging each other questions and stories. Only this time, it felt a little bit more open and honest.

Maybe it was because she didn't know he was a student too.

"The Viper?" he said with a twisted grimace. "We've only been there once. After the owner creeped the hell out of my classmate, we never went back. There are a lot of other drinking places around. Have you tried Miss Marta's?"

The last of the pasta was finished and she threw the disposable fork into the plastic container before closing it.

"Yeah but it's too far away from the dorm so we hardly ever drink there," she said before taking a sip of her iced tea.

"Too far away from the dorms and I met you at Valkyrie. Wait, you stay at the dormitories?"

"Yeah. Me and Ino. You remember _her_ right?"

He laughed. "Yeah, I do. The blonde girl, right? She's a party animal. I recognize her. I've seen her throw up somewhere in the club once or twice. I don't know. But I've seen her."

"So what about you? Where do you stay?"

"My apartment," he answered. "Not far from here, yeah. I got the place to myself."

It was weird seeing him like this. After meeting him at a club and seeing him perform as a DJ, Omphalos University was the last place she ever thought she would see him again. In fact, she didn't think she was going to see him at all anymore.

She watched him rock his chair and was trying her best not to get him to sit still so she could take a good look at him because she still wasn't believing her eyes.

Sakura then remembered the paper and opened her notebook.

"So when do you wanna do it?"

Deidara almost missed his timing to pull his chair back to the table and nearly fell. Sakura shrieked but her hands were quick enough to cover her mouth so she'd muffled it.

When he finally regained balance, he shot her a puzzled look. "Do _what_ exactly?"

It dawned on her that they were talking about his apartment when she asked him when he wanted to do _it_ without specifying that _it_ was an insightful philosophical paper due next week.

"The paper," she said. "You know? The one Prof. Ebisu paired us for?"

"Oh, that," he said with a relief before he looked off in the distance with an analytic look in his eye. "It's due next week, right? I was thinking we could just wing it and do it on Saturday or Sunday."

Okay, _wing it_. She repeated it to herself.

Sakura was as studious as scholars got. She valued her education because she knew she lacked talent. She didn't know how to sing or dance or play any sports so what she lacked everywhere else, she more than made up for with her intellect.

Usually, if she was paired or grouped with strangers, she was the one to take the lead. If others refused to follow, she left out their names in the final output. Sakura was the kind of student hated most by Ino.

Probably by Deidara too.

"Okay, then" she said pursing her lips as she noted it on top of the page where she'd written down the lecture for today. "Wing. It. On. Sunday. I'll probably just send you some links you can read from."

Her phone vibrated in her pocket.

 ** _From: Yamanaka Oink-oink  
_** _Received: 11:35  
_ _Message: EMERGENCY! 12pm deadline! I forgot to send my quiz! In my laptop! PW: rapunz3L Filename: "Screw this paper im done FINAL" thanks mwa_

"Well," she said, sliding all her stuff into her pack and stood from her seat. "Ino needs me to save her ass again. I'm sorry I have to leave a little early."

Deidara checked his phone for the time before he got up and slung his bag over his shoulder.

"No big deal," he said. "Class is in half an hour, anyway. It's a long walk from here to the Fine Arts building, yeah. Nice seeing you today, by the way. I'll just text you, I guess."

She smiled. "Or I can text you. Whichever works. See you!"

* * *

 **So they finally met!**

 **Review, follow and favorite! Spread the word to your crack-pairing-shipping pals!**


	5. Another Kind of You

**Here's chapter five featuring Illusion by Zedd.**

* * *

 _Take me to a place with real-life love_

 _I need a break from this broken-down fantasy_

 _Show me a place I can realize love_

 _Not your illusion_

* * *

If she were completely honest with herself, she was quite enjoying Deidara's very random texts this past week. Even in the middle of class, Sakura got a kick out of his sudden messages even though she didn't exactly encourage them. If she received a text during class, she made sure to reply after dismissal.

They also had each other's e-mail addresses, friended each other on Facebook and followed each other on Twitter.

So far, they'd only been teasing each other based on their stereotypes and updating each other whether they were in class or busy or whether their professor looked like a praying mantis or an ant eater. Sakura tried not to laugh at his latter comments since she'd seen the professors he'd been talking about around campus.

Ino caught her once or twice laughing at her phone but never bothered to ask. Of course, when Sakura finally told her roomie that she was classmates with Deidara, her BFF was more than eager to shake her for details but nothing more than that.

However, for the most part, she'd been trying to reply minimally. Sakura had a lot of reading to get done and a lot of video submissions to complete. Deidara understood and didn't bug her as much when he knew she was busy but that didn't stop him from texting anyway. A reply wasn't expected from her, of course.

She discovered she liked Deidara as a person even though they'd only been texting. She found that he was funny and quick to come up with a witty response and he always spoke his mind.

As a student, Sakura wasn't exactly enthusiastic to work with him this coming weekend. He was the kind of student who liked to wait for the last minute and squeeze his brain dry to meet the deadline so she doubted he even bothered to open any of the links she'd sent him over the week.

Sakura was in Sasuke's car on the way to Indulgence—the café where she and Deidara had coffee in the middle of the night. They agreed it would be a good place to do their paper since, to Sakura, it was far from the immediate area of the school and wasn't swamped with students and, to Deidara, it was close to the Valkyrie.

Her mind was brought back to the present when I Wanna Know began playing and Sasuke reached to switch the radio station. Sakura slapped his hand and Sasuke glared at her from the driver's seat.

She could remember him looking over at her on the passenger seat with a different expression on his face. Almost a year ago, he would either be smirking at her or looking at her with hunger whenever they were in the car. But times have changed and now she was sitting next to him as a friend.

"Since when did you like this music?" asked the raven, giving Sakura an appraising look.

She frowned. "Eyes on the road, hotshot," she said pointedly. "And what's wrong with it? It's got a nice tune and I wouldn't mind driving all the way to the Capitol City with this song on the radio."

"It's just weird," he said, not commenting anymore. Of course, if he did, he would have to bring up the fact that she blatantly despised this genre when they were dating. After a while, he spoke again. "Why is it you're even traveling this far to write your paper?"

"Well, my partner works near that café and I didn't wanna be too much of an inconvenience," she said evenly.

Sasuke looked at her from the corner of his eye before he focused back on the road. "If I wasn't going to visit my brother in the studio, how did you plan on going anyway? A cab?"

Sakura shrugged, not bothering to answer because judging by the frown on his face, she was aware that he was going to lecture her about the dangers of riding a cab alone. That was the last thing she wanted to hear from her ex-boyfriend right now—his concern.

After a few minutes, Sasuke pulled up in the middle of the business district and dropped her off. "Should I pick you up here after I finish setting an appointment?"

"No," she said. "I'll have Ino pick me up. No cabs. I swear it."

When he was satisfied, he drove away in the general direction of the heart of the business district. Sakura, on the other hand, went on ahead and entered the café, spotting Deidara immediately back of the establishment in a booth.

He was in a black university shirt and jeans and—surprsingly—a low ponytail. It was weird but with his usual bangs out of the way, she was able to appreciate his young and boyish features. And those blue eyes were so much more beautiful without his hair in the way.

His headphones were in place as he concentrated on his laptop. Sakura noted the tapping of his feet and the way he would drum his fingers on the edge of the table before he hit the space bar and went to work again. No doubt, he was in the middle of mixing.

She approached the table, dropping her pack to the floor carefully, secretly hoping that he would soon close that program once they began working on their paper.

Deidara looked up at her and grinned. "Hey," he greeted as he pulled the headphones to hang around his neck.

"Hey," she greeted back. Sakura bent under the table to pull her laptop and set in on the table along with her big ass notebook and her pens. "So how do we do this? I've got a copy of Ebisu's first lecture from a friend a couple of days ago and I've already read through them so if you want, you can read through these too while I start on my part and then—"

"Sakura," interrupted the blond. He held Sakura by the wrist with one hand while the other hand told her to slow down. "What's the rush? We've got all day, yeah. Have you had lunch yet? The grilled ham sandwich here's not that bad."

Sakura blinked once. Then again. Unbelievable. Seriously? Yeah, sure she knew they had all day but that didn't mean they didn't have to start right now. The longer they would put this off, the harder it was going to be to meet the deadline.

She shook her head. "I had lunch, thanks," said the pinkette before she opened her laptop. "So, I wanna get this started as soon as possible. You read those links I sent you, right?"

"Yeah, yeah," he said as he waved his hand at her. "Tell you what: You wanna get this started and done immediately, right? How 'bout you do your half of the paper and I'll worry about my half a bit later?"

"What? Why? Are you busy or something?"

He shrugged. "Not much. I swear I'll work later. I just gotta finish this bit of the song so I at least have something to play tonight at the Valkyrie, yeah."

Sakura willed herself not to glare at him and just pursed her lips and forced a smile before she muttered "Okay" under her breath. She started perusing through her notes and from peripheral view, she saw him put on his headphones again so she did the same and plugged in her earphones.

While writing, she stole glances at Deidara who was too focused on whatever he was doing and it was starting to piss her off that he hadn't even bothered to touch the notes she'd handed to him.

One too many times, she'd seen this style. Yeah, they were going to show up when they agreed to "work" on the project but they would end up just throwing in ideas that weren't even related to the subject. Or worse. Paraphrase everything she'd done which only made the whole paper redundant.

Deidara was the same.

Her phone vibrated on the tabletop and both of them eyed it for a moment while Sakura unlocked it to read the message before she locked it once more.

"Aren't you gonna answer that?" she heard him say for the first time in fifteen minutes.

Sakura shook her head once. "It's only Ino and she knows I'm busy today. Can't afford to be distracted. I'm in the middle of an intellectual gold mine here."

Deidara didn't comment anymore and just resumed whatever he was doing and she did the same.

A little later, her playlist on shuffle started playing Hey Monday songs—a band whose songs she hadn't played in a while. Absentmindedly, she started singing to the songs, the lyrics still deep in her subconscious even though she hadn't listened to them since she was high school.

" _Blow the candles out. Looks like a solo tonight_ ," sang Sakura, keeping her voice in a soft falsetto because she knew how earphones deceived her own ears of the real volume of her voice.

From the corner of her eye, she saw him move and thought he must have scratched his cheek or something. Little did she know that he actually adjusted one side of his headphones to be able to hear her voice a little better. Sakura was too immersed in her task that she didn't know he'd heard her singing through half of her playlist.

He was no expert when it came to things like these but he thought she had a nice voice. Well, he wasn't sure. But she knew how to carry a tune. And with the way she stopped typing every now and then was proof that she was easily distracted by the music.

"Hey Monday, right?" asked Deidara.

Sakura lifted her eyes from the screen, noting her last trail of thought before she fully focused on Deidara. "Yeah. You know them?"

"Liked them better than Paramore, actually," he said easily before he shut his laptop and pulled his headphones from his ears. "Their vibes are way different but I do like Cassadee's timbre better. Shame they stopped making songs."

"Yeah, I loved them too," she sighed.

Before she could even continue what she was doing, he spoke again. "You know, if you wanna focus on what you're doing, you should really listen to instrumental music—preferably classical. You're not really focused."

Trying not her best to scowl at him for lecturing her while she was working and he was not, Sakura nodded once and said "I'll remember that," before she turned back to her task but he wasn't quite finished yet.

"I like your voice, yeah," he commented.

Her head shot up and she frowned at him. It wasn't the first time she'd heard it but she never knew how to respond to compliments so she just pouted and went back to hitting the keys furiously.

Deidara moved his chair and sat beside her to read what she'd been writing and Sakura covered her screen only barely with her small hands.

"What? You think I'll copy off of your work?" asked Deidara, looking slightly offended with a raised brow. "Give me some credit, Sakura. I just wanted to see what you were writing on so I know how to oppose it."

She turned to Deidara who had been sitting closer to her than she expected. "Oppose? Isn't this supposed to be a collaborative paper?"

"Uhuh," shrugged the blond. "But if chose to support your statement, wouldn't that just be me repeating everything you say? You might as well just write the whole thing yourself, yeah."

Taken slightly aback, she regarded him for a moment. Well, she certainly wasn't expecting _that_. Maybe she was wrong about him and she almost never liked to be wrong. But in this case, she was happy that he reached across her and borrowed her notes, her work music completely ignored.

Sakura went back to finishing her part of the paper while she let Deidara read beside her. Every now and then, Deidara would ask her something and she was more than happy to explain it for him… Well, until he'd wave a hand and say, "Yeah, okay, I get it now."

But she supposed that was better than him not asking at all.

An hour went by and he offered to buy her something and she requested a slice of apple pie. Before leaving, she could see the wicked smirk on his features and immediately made the connection of her order to an infamously dirty movie.

While he was waiting in line, Sasuke texted her and told her he was on his way back to OU but she told him she was going to be just fine going home on her own.

By the time Deidara had returned to the table with her apple pie and his milkshake, she was finished with her part, summarizing everything she had written by the fifth page.

"Do you wanna write it on my laptop or should I just send it to you?" she asked, saving her paper with a quick Ctrl+S.

Deidara was setting the contents of the tray on their table when he answered. "I'll just finish it on your laptop. Shouldn't take too long. How many pages did you do?" When Sakura answered, he nearly spilled the milkshake on the table. "Five? Seriously?"

Sakura flinched a little when he nearly spilled his glass. "Yeah. Problem?"

"Nah," he answered before he set the tray on its side on their table so it was resting against the wall. "Though I can't promise that I can give as much as you can."

"As long as you input something original," she muttered almost to herself before eyeing her apple pie and his shake which was topped off generously with whipped cream and a cherry. "Is that shake vanilla?"

Deidara took his seat beside her and removed the bendy straw from the plastic and offered it to her. "Yeah. You wanna?"

She didn't turn down his offer and stuck the straw into his drink before taking a testing sip of it and then another when she realized how good it was. "Thanks."

Her fingers let go of the straw and the second she pulled away, she noted the way Deidara reached for the cherry by the stem and pulled the fruit in his mouth. Well, at least he wasn't kidding about his love for cherries, she mused.

Deidara promised to get to work as soon as he finished his drink. It helped that he was letting her take a few sips so in return she offered him her apple pie. Well, at least, the apple pie he ordered from the place.

However, just when he and Sakura were about to switch seats so he could begin working, his phone rang. Almost irritated at the unexpected call, he pulled his phone out and held it to his ear closest to Sakura.

"What is it?" He ground irritably while Sakura tried in vain to make out whatever the man talking loudly on the other line was trying to say. "Yeah, I'm close by but I'm a bit busy right now? And I have the opening stage for Valkyrie. Yeah, I know but—wait, seriously? I'll think about it, yeah. What?! Alright fine, I'll see if I can do anything."

As soon as he locked his phone and shoved it in his pocket, he turned to Sakura who was looking the least bit amused by his phone call and he rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of how to explain it to her.

Sakura glared daggers at him. "You're leaving."

Well, at least he wouldn't have to explain that part.

"Sorta," he said, dragging his eyes to the side as he scratched his chin with the same hand he had on his neck. "Well, this band scheduled to play for the afternoon bar at Bottled Royale backed out the last minute and they need someone to fill in."

"You're not a band," she said, making a face.

Deidara raised a shoulder. "Well, it's not exactly exclusive to bands. They just need any musical act to fill in and they said they would double whatever they were supposed to pay the band, yeah."

The pinkette looked away, not wanting him to see her roll her eyes. "So what are we gonna do about this?" Demanded Sakura, her voice slightly raised as she gestured to her laptop. "You're gonna be busy this afternoon until later tonight. This is due tomorrow morning."

"Look," he started calmly. "I just have to go, okay? I need the money more than I need good grades but I promise I'll do it after my gigs and print it for tomorrow morning. Just send it to my e-mail."

"Send it to me before 2 in the morning," insisted the pinkette.

Deidara had to rub his temples with one hand before he huffed. "Hey, I said I was going to do it, didn't I? What? You trust me enough to take you out while you're drunk but you don't trust me with this stupid paper, hm?"

"This paper just so happens to be 30% of our midterm grade," Sakura ground out, her irritation growing rapidly by the second.

"Sheesh," he responded bluntly. "Are you always this controlling?"

Sakura didn't answer as her body tensed at the familiar word. Instead, she slammed her laptop shut and stuffed everything back in her bag. The blond only watched her as she pushed her seat away from the table and slung her bag over her shoulder.

"I'll just send it to you," she said, her tone far serious this time. "Good luck on your gigs. See you tomorrow."

0-0-0-0-0-0

Despite her promise earlier to a certain raven, Sakura hailed a cab to return to the university. During the whole ride, she couldn't help but feel infuriated at how reckless Deidara was as a student. He put his party life ahead of his academic standing.

Of course, she couldn't blame him. He said he needed money but still. His education was just as important…especially when his grade for the paper would also serve as hers.

When she returned to her room, Ino had just come back from the shower and was still clad in her purple bathrobe. Her roommate looked quite surprised to see her back.

"I thought you were on a study date?" she heard the blonde ask while she threw her pack carefully on her bed and fell on her stomach beside it. "I wasn't expecting you to be back until a little later."

Sakura raised a brow with her face still pressed on her mattress before she flipped herself over. "You got company?"

"Nah," answered Ino who was struggling to squeeze her still damp legs into her denim skinny jeans. "But I am on my way out. Chouji, Shikamaru and I are going to that karaoke place near Miss Marta's. So, how'd the date go?"

"He had to leave early," she drawled lazily to sound uncaring.

"At least you got to finish your little paper, right?" Sakura jolted into a sitting position and frowned at Ino. The blonde's expression twisted in worry. "Oh, Sakura. You didn't go all freaky at him, did you?"

"And what's that supposed to mean?!"

Ino shrugged retrieving her phone from her bed to check her new message. "Well, you have a tendency to freak out when things don't go your way."

"Well, I did."

"Well, you can kiss your little hottie goodbye. And speaking of leaving hotties," she segued as she pulled on her shirt. "I gotta jet. Chouji's already downstairs. I'd ask you to come with but—"

Sakura waved her hand. "It's fine, bitch. Have fun, okay?"

Ino stuffed everything she needed into her small purse and slipped into a pair of doll shoes and ran out the door. Sakura was left in their dorm room, looking at nothing in particular before she snapped out of it and changed into a white tank top and red shorts.

For the next few hours, Sakura stayed in bed, scrolling endlessly through her Facebook feed and frequently updating her Twitter. She planned on looking for Naruto in their room but according to his Twitter, he's out with Hinata and she could only hope they weren't out in the bathroom again because she was itching for a shower.

The showers were safe and by the time she returned to her room, it was already a few minutes past seven. She only had several more hours to kill until she could bother Deidara again about their paper. Yes, she despised him at this very moment but not enough to ruin his career.

A movie or two should help her pass the time. She hadn't exactly gotten around to watching that Gloomy Sunday movie that one of her professors required them to watch for her Film subject. And then afterwards, she could do some advanced reading on Digital Media.

Yeah, that should do it.

A little over two hours later, after being simultaneously intrigued and disturbed by Gloomy Sunday, Sakura grabbed her textbooks and headed over to the Concentration Zone of the dorm and spent the next few hours there. She never bothered checking her phone for the time.

After creating a reviewer for two whole chapters in advance, she returned to her room, passing by a very drunk Kiba who no doubt is only on his way to his third party tonight in the fraternity house.

When she got back in her room, her phone read 12:30 a.m. Ino would be back any minute because she knew the karaoke place her roommate was talking about closed at midnight.

As expected, the door slammed against the wall as it swung open. But she was so sure she'd find a blonde woman wobble into the room. Instead, a guy with black hair in a ponytail peeked into the room and froze when he found Sakura sitting on her bed and looking right at him.

"Hey," he greeted rather awkwardly.

Sakura could only roll her eyes. "You got her to drink beer again, didn't you?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "She tolerates strong drinks well but she's troublesome when she drinks beer."

"Just throw her into bed," she said nonchalantly as she walked over to Ino's bed and rearranged the pillows. "She'll automatically get up after a few hours and puke and then she'll change and go right back to sleep. I've seen it enough times to memorize it."

One too many times, in fact.

It wasn't the first time Ino had been dragged back to her room by her friends. Shikamaru had carried her back a dozen times before and some of Ino's girlfriends sometimes knocked on the door and asked her for help to get her roomie into the elevator.

Ino was a strong drinker but it just so happened that she liked to drink a lot and test her limits when it comes to hard liquor. However, it would only take her two bottles of beer to pass out on the table.

Sakura helped Shikamaru carry their mutual friend into the room before they dropped her on the bed. After which, she thanked him for getting Ino back safely and he went back to his room which was one floor below.

When Sakura was sure Ino wasn't going anywhere, she opened her laptop and waited for the 2 a.m. mark. If Deidara failed to submit it by then, she would head to the printing station in the small library downstairs tomorrow morning and print the one she had on hand.

With only her name on top.

One hour later, her inbox was update-less and she texted him before turning in for the night.

 _ **To: Deidara  
**_ _Sent:_ _02:03  
_ _Message_ _: I'm going to bed. Goodnight._

* * *

Deidara was functioning on three cups of black coffee. He'd forgotten he already finished his supply of coffee creamer and putting an excessive amount of sugar in his coffee just to improve the taste was too unhealthy even for a guy who had been living off of canned goods for the last five years.

He got home at one in the morning due to a dispute at the studio and he barely had enough time to write his part of the paper in time to send it to Sakura. But that didn't stop him from forcing his brain to function faster.

An hour later, he received a text from her. Didn't take a genius to see she was pissed. Nevertheless, he was set on finishing it and he'd simply have to print it himself and submit it tomorrow morning.

He'd seen the way she looked at him. She probably thought he was one of those students who loved slacking off and went by leeching off of the work of others. She wasn't wrong if she assumed that. He just wished she'd put a little more faith in him.

Deidara had seen her in the classroom only once but it was enough to tell him how important her grades were to her and he didn't want to pull her down. In fact, he wanted to help so he pulled out all those other old notes that he _borrowed_ from other students. He even did his own research.

Four hours later, he finished his input on their paper which now totaled nine pages. He was one page short from matching her input but it was five in the morning and he had to be in school in two hours. Sleeping wasn't an option because he was sure he would oversleep and miss the class.

After he printed the paper, he took a bath to remove the stench of smoke and alcohol from his hair and put on the first things he found on top of his cabinet—a navy blue long-sleeved shirt and a washed out pair of denims.

While he was pulling his hair into a top-knot, he passed by his workbench and stared at his unfinished work which was still currently just a big lump of clay. He stopped in the middle of the room and considered it for a while. It really was just a 2 ft. tall lump of clay. He forgot what he even planned for it to be.

He thought it was high time he figure out where he wanted to go with it and took his sketchpad from the top drawer of the workbench. After sliding it into his backpack just behind his laptop, Deidara switched off the lights and the main breaker and left.

A few minutes before seven, he managed to quietly slip in the back of the classroom and settled himself by the aisle again at the last row. Students were slowly filling the classroom and it wasn't long until the professor entered.

Ebisu began calling the class roster alphabetically and he only hoped Sakura would make it on time because he didn't feel like speaking out in class to defend her. Luckily, the pinkette, who looked as if she'd just gotten out of bed, managed to sneak into the classroom before the professor even finished the B's.

She entered through the same door as he did and glared at him the moment she turned left. Deidara hesitantly scooted away from the aisle and allowed her some space. Sakura looked as if she was thinking about whether she actually wanted to sit beside him. In the end, she just went with it and slid behind the desk.

Five minutes later, her notebooks were already scattered on top of the desk and her pencil case was left open on one side of the clutter but not once had she said a word to him.

"You're really not going to talk to me," he said under his breath in her general direction. With the way Sakura was concentrating on jotting down everything Professor Ebisu was saying, he honestly thought she was going to ignore him.

But then she slammed her pen over her notebook with some impatience and turned to him with a sharp glare. "I said 2 a.m., didn't I?" Sakura pulled out the paper and set it on the desk and the single name on top of the paper did not go unnoticed.

"I don't have to explain myself to you, yeah," he said with an eye roll before he bent into the desk and reached into his bag to pull out his printed output and set it on top of the one on the desk. "Read it and weep before he asks us to submit it. And don't worry about your notes. I'll write them down while you marvel at _our_ work."

Without waiting for her to speak, he reached over to her space on the desk and slid her notebook over to his side and clicked her pen open.

Moments later, Ebisu asked them to pass their assignments forward and gave them a new assignment. After she passed _their_ paper in the front, she quietly asked for her notebook back and he watched as her eyes widened. Yes, he actually did take down notes for her.

For the remainder of the class, Deidara's forehead was pressed down on his forearm as he dozed off, catching up on an hour and a half of rest. Maybe he should just sleep through lunch time too.

Of course, there were times he felt Sakura watching him but he didn't want to assume. He didn't even want to care about her right now because damn it he didn't sleep last night and she was bitching about so early in the morning.

He wasn't sure how long he was out for but a light tapping on the shoulder woke him up and when he sat up again, he found Sakura standing on the aisle, adjusting her bag on her shoulders.

"Class is over," she said quietly.

Deidara said nothing, feeling in a worse mood than he had been before. Remembering that he hadn't even taken his laptop out of his bag, he pulled his bag from under the desk and quickly left the room.

Maybe skipping lunch wasn't a good idea. He wouldn't be able to sleep through his next class with an empty stomach so he decided to at least get a burger or hotdog in the cafeteria.

He settled himself on the two-seater table and placed his bag on the other chair when he noticed that a certain pink-haired girl had followed him here. Or maybe she simply wanted lunch but if that was the case, then she shouldn't be approaching his table right now.

"Can I sit with you?" asked Sakura cautiously. This was the first time he noticed that she was actually wearing a light blue dress and she looked a lot like a candy-inspired cartoon character.

Deidara shifted his gaze back to his tray tentatively before looking up at her again with a scowl and a raised brow. "Don't know. Can you apologize for bitching about the stupid paper?"

Sakura looked at him for a second, considering his words before she took a deep breath. "Fine. I'm sorry."

"That wasn't so hard, yeah," said the blonde before he reached over to the other chair to remove his bag. Sakura settled her tray on her side of the table. She was frigid and her posture was reserved. "I told you I was going to do it, didn't I?"

"I know, I know," she sighed. "I'm sorry. Your work was actually good…"

He made an amused sound at her. "It better be. I didn't get any sleep over that shit."

"I'm sorry," she repeated quietly.

"Will you stop apologizing?" Deidara ground out before he took the hotdog bun from the tray. "If there's anything you should be apologizing for, it's your dress. You look like something pulled out of the Disney Channel, yeah."

He looked up at her and noticed her body relax a little as she laughed at his comment.

Deidara didn't like it when she looked so afraid of him though he was really pissed at her just an hour ago. But he found it so much better when they were freely teasing each other. He wasn't exactly the type to forgive so easily but he found himself easily forgetting her attitude this morning.

Well, as long as she knows she was wrong.

"It was the first thing I found that didn't need ironing," explained Sakura. "How was your thing yesterday?"

Deidara tried his hardest not to frown as he remembered everything that happened last night. "Not bad."

* * *

 **Sorry this took so long. It took me a while to work out where I wanted this to go.**

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